Result for
Topic: Testing and Treatment
April 10, 2020
Effect of throat washings on detection of 2019 novel coronavirus
SARS-CoV-2 detection was compared in paired self-collected throat washings and nasopharyngeal swabs from 11 patients. The authors conclude that positive testing rate of throat washing was much higher than that of nasopharyngeal swabs, and that throat washing is a promising candidate for 2019-nCoV screening and monitoring due to its noninvasive nature and reliability. Guo et…
Variation in False Negative Rate of RT-PCR Based SARS-CoV-2 Tests by Time Since Exposure
The authors used previously published data on RT-PCR sensitivity of samples derived from nasal swabs to calculate the false negative rate by day since exposure and symptom onset. The probability of a false negative test ranged from 100% on day one post exposure to 26% three days after onset symptoms. The authors conclude that in…
Optimization of SARS-CoV-2 detection by RT-QPCR without RNA extraction
The authors evaluated a direct RT-QPCR method without RNA extraction and the influence of swab storage media on detection. Their SeeGene’s assay provided similar efficiency to RealStar®. The authors conclude that RNA extraction may not be necessary if samples are stored in UTM or molecular water; and also recommend that samples be stored in saline…
April 9, 2020
LAMP-Seq: Population-Scale COVID-19 Diagnostics Using a Compressed Barcode Space
Schmid et al propose using LAMP-Seq, a barcoded Reverse-Transcription Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (RT-LAMP) protocol that could dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of population-scale testing of COVID-19. Given the low cost and scalability of next-generation sequencing, the team believes that this method could be affordably scaled to analyze millions of samples per day using existing…
April 8, 2020
Deployment of convalescent plasma for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19
To date, there are no proven options for prophylaxis for those exposed to SARS-CoV-2 nor therapy for COVID-19 patients. Passive antibody administration of convalescent plasma may immediate and short term immunity to susceptible individuals. Convalescent plasma has been used in the COVID-19 pandemic, however, limited data from China suggests that there are nuanced challenges, both…
April 7, 2020
Analysis and Applications of Non-Adaptive and Adaptive Group Testing Methods for COVID-19
The authors propose non-adaptive and adaptive group testing strategies based on generalized binary splitting (GBS) where the group test is restricted to the largest group that can be used. The authors suggest that this approach described in the article is particularly applicable to vulnerable confined populations such as nursing homes, prisons, military ships and cruise…
Sample Pooling as a Strategy to Detect Community Transmission of SARS-CoV-2
The authors used sampled pooling, a strategy used for community monitoring of other infectious diseases, in this retrospective study to increase overall testing efficiency at an expected slight loss of sensitivity. 292 pools were screened, corresponding with 2740 nasopharyngeal samples and 148 bronchoalveolar lavage samples, collected from inpatients and outpatients between Jan 1-Feb 26 in…
April 6, 2020
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 RNA Detected in Blood Donations
Wuhan Blood Center screened donations for SARS-CoV-2 RNA in real-time and retrospectively and found plasma samples positive for viral RNA from 4 asymptomatic donors. The study suggest that donors should call the blood donation center if they have any COVID-19 symptoms after donating, in case the donation occurred during the COVID-19 incubation period, and donations…
Patient-collected tongue, nasal, and mid-turbinate swabs for SARS-CoV-2 yield equivalent sensitivity to health care worker collected nasopharyngeal swabs.
This study explored the equivalency of patient-collected tongue, nasal and mid-turbinate samples to healthcare collected nasopharyngeal samples for detecting SARS-CoV-2. The sensitivity of patient collected samples was calculated to be above 90% and the sampling was feasible in ambulatory practice, even in cohorts of nearly 500 patients. Patient-collected sampling has several advantages over nasopharyngeal sampling:…
Predicting Whom to Test is More Important Than More Tests – Modeling the Impact of Testing on the Spread of COVID-19 Virus By True Positive Rate Estimation.
The author used modeling to simulate the effects of increasing true positive rates of testing and the number of tests per day on slowing spread of COVID-19, and reports that the true positive rate can increase with large increases in testing or by improving the prediction on whom to test. To better allocate tests, a…
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