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Case Reports
. 2020 Dec 11;14(1):242.
doi: 10.1186/s13256-020-02551-1.

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia: two case reports

Felix S Seibert  1 , Daniela Toma  2 , Frederic Bauer  2 , Krystallenia Paniskaki  3 , Moritz Anft  3 , Benjamin J Rohn  2 , Simon Wang  2 , Diana Racovitan  2 , Nina Babel  2   3 , Timm H Westhoff  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia: two case reports

Felix S Seibert et al. J Med Case Rep. .

Abstract

Background: Developing therapeutic strategies for a SARS-CoV-2 infection is challenging, but first the correct diagnosis has to be made. Unspecific upper and lower respiratory tract symptoms can be misleading; hence, a nasopharyngeal swab test with a real-time reverse-transcription-polymerase chain reaction is of great importance. However, early viral clearing jeopardizes a sound diagnosis of COVID-19.

Case presentation: We report on two Caucasian patients who had negative pharyngeal swab tests at the onset of SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. In one patient, the virus was not even detectable in bronchoalveolar lavage despite typical radiomorphologic changes.

Conclusions: Negative PCR findings in both the pharynx and bronchoalveolar lavage do not exclude COVID-19 pneumonia. Computed tomography is a crucial diagnostic prerequisite in this context.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Swab test.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Thoracic computed tomography showing bilateral ground-glass opacities (arrows) of patient 1 (a) and patient 2 (b)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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