Nasal Swab As an Alternative Specimen for the Detection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2

Overview

Journal Health Sci Rep

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2023 Apr 20

PMID 37077182

Authors

Kamrun Nahar

Mst Noorjahan Begum

Selim R Tony

Mohammad Jubair

Md Abir Hossain

Yeasir Karim

Abdullah Al Faisal

Mohammad Enayet Hossain

Mohammed Ziaur Rahman

Mustafizur Rahman

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background And Aims: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought serious threats to public health worldwide. Nasopharyngeal, nasal swabs, and saliva specimens are used to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). However, limited data are available on the performance of less invasive nasal swab for testing COVID-19. This study aimed to compare the diagnostic performance of nasal swabs with nasopharyngeal swabs using real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) considering viral load, onset of symptoms, and disease severity.

Methods: A total of 449 suspected COVIDCOVID-19 individuals were recruited. Both nasopharyngeal and nasal swabs were collected from the same individual. Viral RNA was extracted and tested by real-time RT-PCR. Metadata were collected using structured questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS and MedCalc software.

Results: The overall sensitivity of the nasopharyngeal swab was 96.6%, and the nasal swab was 83.4%. The sensitivity of nasal swabs was more than 97.7% for low and moderate values. Moreover, the performance of nasal swab was very high (>87%) for hospitalized patients and at the later stage >7 days of onset of symptoms.

Conclusion: Less invasive nasal swab sampling with adequate sensitivity can be used as an alternative to nasopharyngeal swabs for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 by real-time RT-PCR.

Citing Articles

Effectiveness of Frequent Point-of-Care Molecular COVID-19 Surveillance in a Rural Workplace: Nonrandomized Controlled Clinical Trial Among Miners.

Sood A, Cotton Jarrell W, Shore X, Sosa N, Parada A, Edwardson N JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2025; 11:e59845.

PMID: 39869851 PMC: 11790240. DOI: 10.2196/59845.

Nasal swab as an alternative specimen for the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

Nahar K, Begum M, Tony S, Jubair M, Hossain M, Karim Y Health Sci Rep. 2023; 6(4):e1213.

PMID: 37077182 PMC: 10106929. DOI: 10.1002/hsr2.1213.

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