February 19, 2021

Self-Collected Oral Fluid Saliva Is Insensitive Compared With Nasal-Oropharyngeal Swabs in the Detection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in Outpatients

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Testing and Treatment

Keywords (Tags): testing

A study of people with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection suggests that self-collected oral fluid is significantly less sensitive for diagnosis than self-collected nasal-oropharyngeal specimens, especially after five days have passed since the onset of symptoms. Of the samples, which were matched by patient, 60 were concordantly negative, 45 concordantly positive, and 66 were discordant (63 nasal-OP pos/oral neg and 3 nasal-OP neg/oral pos). The SARS-CoV-2 RNA estimates, obtained using PCR, were generally higher in nasal-OP samples. The authors conclude that their data do not support the routine use of oral fluid collection for diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 despite the greater ease of collection.

Manabe et al. (Feb 1, 2021). Self-Collected Oral Fluid Saliva Is Insensitive Compared With Nasal-Oropharyngeal Swabs in the Detection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in Outpatients. Open Forum Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofaa648