Comparison of throat swabs and sputum specimens for viral nucleic acid detection in 52 cases of novel coronavirus (SARS-Cov-2)-infected pneumonia (COVID-19)
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Abstract
Objectives
In December 2019, a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2)-infected pneumonia (COVID-19) occurred in Wuhan, China. Laboratory-based diagnostic tests utilized real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) on throat samples. This study evaluated the diagnostic value to analyzing throat and sputum samples in order to improve accuracy and detection efficiency.
Methods
Paired specimens of throat swabs and sputum were obtained from 54 cases, and RNA was extracted and tested for 2019-nCoV (equated with SARS-CoV-2) by the RT-PCR assay.
Results
The positive rates of 2019-nCoV from sputum specimens and throat swabs were 76.9% and 44.2%, respectively. Sputum specimens showed a significantly higher positive rate than throat swabs in detecting viral nucleic acid using the RT-PCR assay (p = 0.001).
Conclusions
The detection rates of 2019-nCoV from sputum specimens were significantly higher than those from throat swabs. We suggest that sputum would benefit for the detection of 2019-nCoV in patients who produce sputum. The results can facilitate the selection of specimens and increase the accuracy of diagnosis.
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SciScore for 10.1101/2020.02.21.20026187: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: The study was approved by Jinyintan Hospital Ethics Committee and oral consent was obtained from patients involved before enrolment when data were collected retrospectively. qRT-PCR Assay for SARS-CoV-2: Throat swabs and sputum specimens were collected for extracting 2019-nCoV RNA from patients suspected of having 2019-nCoV infection.
Consent: The study was approved by Jinyintan Hospital Ethics Committee and oral consent was obtained from patients involved before enrolment when data were collected retrospectively. qRT-PCR Assay for SARS-CoV-2: Throat swabs and sputum specimens were collected for extracting 2019-nCoV RNA from patients suspected of having …SciScore for 10.1101/2020.02.21.20026187: (What is this?)
Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.
Table 1: Rigor
Institutional Review Board Statement IRB: The study was approved by Jinyintan Hospital Ethics Committee and oral consent was obtained from patients involved before enrolment when data were collected retrospectively. qRT-PCR Assay for SARS-CoV-2: Throat swabs and sputum specimens were collected for extracting 2019-nCoV RNA from patients suspected of having 2019-nCoV infection.
Consent: The study was approved by Jinyintan Hospital Ethics Committee and oral consent was obtained from patients involved before enrolment when data were collected retrospectively. qRT-PCR Assay for SARS-CoV-2: Throat swabs and sputum specimens were collected for extracting 2019-nCoV RNA from patients suspected of having 2019-nCoV infection.Randomization not detected. Blinding not detected. Power Analysis not detected. Sex as a biological variable not detected. Table 2: Resources
Software and Algorithms Sentences Resources Statistical Analysis: All analyses were performed using SPSS 22.0. SPSSsuggested: (SPSS, RRID:SCR_002865)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:Therefore, thoroughly mixing and homogenization of sputum samples might be important factors to obtain reliable test results.[8] This study has several limitations. First, only 52 patients with suspected COVID-19 were included, and further studies were needed to investigate the observation in a larger group of patients. Second, our study only involved throat swabs and sputum samples, and expand discussions of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid and blood samples are necessary in the future. Although sputum is more sensitive than throat swabs for 2019-nCoV detection, the use of sputum may be limited because not all patients with COVID-19 produce sputum, especially elderly patients. Therefore, if a sputum sample is available, it might be a rather reliable specimen for nucleic acid detection of 2019-nCoV. In conclusion, the detection rates of 2019-nCoV from sputum specimens are significantly higher than those from throat swabs using the qRT-PCR assay. We suggest that sputum would benefit for the detection of novel coronavirus in patients who produce sputum. The results can facilitate the selection of specimens and increase the accuracy of diagnosis of COVID-19.
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.
- No protocol registration statement was detected.
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