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Observational Study
. 2021 Jan;76(1):86-88.
doi: 10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-215705. Epub 2020 Oct 23.

Use of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) in the diagnosis of SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19)

Daniel J Ryan  1   2 , Sinead Toomey  3 , Stephen F Madden  4 , Michelle Casey  2 , Oscar S Breathnach  5 , Patrick G Morris  5 , Liam Grogan  5 , Peter Branagan  2 , Richard W Costello  2 , Eoghan De Barra  6 , Killian Hurley  2 , Cedric Gunaratnam  2 , Noel G McElvaney  2 , Michael Emmet OBrien  2 , Imran Sulaiman  2 , Ross K Morgan  2 , Bryan T Hennessy  3   5
Affiliations
Observational Study

Use of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) in the diagnosis of SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19)

Daniel J Ryan et al. Thorax. 2021 Jan.

Abstract

False negatives from nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) using reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) in SARS-CoV-2 are high. Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) contains lower respiratory droplets that may improve detection. We performed EBC RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 genes (E, S, N, ORF1ab) on NPS-positive (n=16) and NPS-negative/clinically positive COVID-19 patients (n=15) using two commercial assays. EBC detected SARS-CoV-2 in 93.5% (29/31) using the four genes. Pre-SARS-CoV-2 era controls (n=14) were negative. EBC was positive in NPS negative/clinically positive patients in 66.6% (10/15) using the identical E and S (E/S) gene assay used for NPS, 73.3% (11/15) using the N/ORF1ab assay and 14/15 (93.3%) combined.

Keywords: exhaled airway markers; respiratory infection; viral infection.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: None declared.

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