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. 2008 Jul;46(7):2414-7.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.00369-08. Epub 2008 May 14.

Comparison between pernasal flocked swabs and nasopharyngeal aspirates for detection of common respiratory viruses in samples from children

Afaf Abu-Diab  1 , Maysa Azzeh, Raed Ghneim, Riyad Ghneim, Madeleine Zoughbi, Sultan Turkuman, Nabeel Rishmawi, Abed-El-Razeq Issa, Issa Siriani, Rula Dauodi, Randa Kattan, Musa Y Hindiyeh
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Comparison between pernasal flocked swabs and nasopharyngeal aspirates for detection of common respiratory viruses in samples from children

Afaf Abu-Diab et al. J Clin Microbiol. 2008 Jul.

Abstract

In this prospective study we compared the use of pernasal flocked swab samples with the use of nasopharyngeal aspirate (NPA) samples for the detection of respiratory viruses from 455 children less than 5 years of age. Overall, the sensitivity and the specificity of the pernasal flocked swab samples were 98.5% and 100%, respectively. The excellent sensitivity of the flocked swab samples in combination with the rapid means by which they may be collected makes them an alternative to NPA samples, whose collection is more invasive.

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