Comparing Nasopharyngeal and Midturbinate Nasal Swab Testing for the Identification of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2

Swetha Pinninti; Connie Trieu; Sunil K Pati; Misty Latting; Joshua Cooper; Maria C Seleme; Sushma Boppana; Nitin Arora; William J Britt; Suresh B Boppana

doi:10.1093/cid/ciaa882

Comparing Nasopharyngeal and Midturbinate Nasal Swab Testing for the Identification of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2

Clin Infect Dis. 2021 Apr 8;72(7):1253-1255. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa882.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatrics, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
² Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.
³ Department of Microbiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA.

Abstract

Testing of paired midturbinate (MT) nasal and nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs, collected by trained personnel from 40 patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), showed that more NP (76/95 [80%]) than MT swabs tested positive (61/95 [64%]) (P = .02). Among samples collected a week after study enrollment, fewer MT than NP samples were positive (45% vs 76%; P = .001).

Keywords: COVID-19; midturbinate swab; nasopharyngeal; viral load.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Diagnostic Tests, Routine
Humans
Nasopharynx
SARS-CoV-2*
Specimen Handling