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. 2021 Apr;82(4):84-123.
doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2020.11.015. Epub 2020 Nov 17.

Comparison of saliva and nasopharyngeal swab SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR testing in a community setting

Monique Torres  1 , Katherine Collins  1 , Mariah Corbit  1 , Maureen Ramirez  1 , Caroline Riley Winters  1 , Lily Katz  1 , Morgan Ross  1 , Norman Relkin  1 , Wenli Zhou  2
Affiliations

Comparison of saliva and nasopharyngeal swab SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR testing in a community setting

Monique Torres et al. J Infect. 2021 Apr.
No abstract available

Keywords: COVID-19; RT-qPCR; SARS-CoV-2; Saliva; nasopharyngeal.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest None.

Figures

Fig 1:
Fig. 1
Bar graph: The relationship between saliva sensitivity (or positive agreement to NPS) and the NPS Ct range. Saliva sensitivity from left to right: 100% (n = 27), 48.0% (n = 25), and 14.6% (n = 48), corresponding to the NPS Ct range of 26 and lower, between 26 and 33, and higher than 33. After excluding individuals infected longer than 14 days, saliva sensitivity was 86.7% when NPS Ct was 33 and lower (n = 45) (the right most bar). Error bar represents the 95% confidence interval. Pie chart: The composition of symptomatic (orange) and asymptomatic (blue) individuals in the corresponding NPS Ct range. Percentage of symptomatic individuals from left to right: 66.7%, 40.0%, 47.9%, and 53.3%. The lowest NPS Ct group (the left most pie) had a significant number of symptomatic individuals (p = 0.04).
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