Evaluation of RNA extraction free method for detection of SARS-COV-2 in salivary samples for mass screening for COVID-19
This article has been Reviewed by the following groups
Discuss this preprint
Start a discussion What are Sciety discussions?Listed in
- Evaluated articles (ScreenIT)
Abstract
In this current COVID - 19 pandemic, there is a dire need for cost effective and less time-consuming alternatives for SARS-COV-2 testing. The RNA extraction free method for detecting SARS-COV-2 in saliva is a promising option, this study found that it has high sensitivity (85.34%), specificity (95.04%) and was comparable to the gold standard nasopharyngeal swab. The method showed good percentage of agreement (kappa coefficient) 0.797 between salivary and NPS samples. However, there are variations in the sensitivity and specificity based on the RT-PCR kit used. The Thermo Fischer-Applied biosystems showed high sensitivity, PPV and NPV but also showed higher percentage of invalid reports. Whereas the BGI kit showed high specificity, better agreement (kappa coefficient) between the results of saliva and NPS samples and higher correlation between the Ct values of saliva and NPS samples. Thus, the RNA extraction free method for salivary sample serves as an effective alternative for SARS-CoV 2-testing.
Article activity feed
-
SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.15.21253570: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: Methods: The study was approved by the Department of Health (DOH) Institutional review board (IRB), Abu Dhabi.
Consent: The participants of the study were well-informed about the details of the study and informed consent was obtained.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Str…
SciScore for 10.1101/2021.03.15.21253570: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: Methods: The study was approved by the Department of Health (DOH) Institutional review board (IRB), Abu Dhabi.
Consent: The participants of the study were well-informed about the details of the study and informed consent was obtained.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
No key resources detected.
Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).
Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:Strengths and Limitations: The strength of this study is that it not only evaluates the RNA extraction free method for molecular testing of SARS-COV-2 of salivary sample, but also validates and compares different RT – PCR kits for extraction free method of saliva sample. Not many studies have evaluated these. Limitation of this study is that the study did not consider the number of days the patient has been infected or symptomatic in analysis, as the viral load in the saliva varies with the stages of infection which might have affected the results of the study.
Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.
Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.
Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.
Results from rtransparent:- Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
- Thank you for including a protocol registration statement.
-
-