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. 2022 Sep;94(9):4522-4527.
doi: 10.1002/jmv.27847. Epub 2022 May 18.

Evaluation of water gargle samples for SARS-CoV-2 detection using Abbott ID NOW COVID-19 assay

Simon Lévesque  1   2 , Stéphanie Beauchemin  3 , Maud Vallée  4 , Jean Longtin  5   6 , Mariève Jacob-Wagner  5 , Jeannot Dumaresq  5   7 , Carlos Dulcey  3 , Annie-Claude Labbé  3   8   9
Affiliations

Evaluation of water gargle samples for SARS-CoV-2 detection using Abbott ID NOW COVID-19 assay

Simon Lévesque et al. J Med Virol. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

The Abbott ID NOW™ COVID-19 assay has been shown as a reliable and sensitive alternative to reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing from nasopharyngeal or nasal samples in symptomatic patients. Water gargle is an acceptable noninvasive alternative specimen for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection by RT-PCR. The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of water gargle samples for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 using the ID NOW. Residual gargle samples were randomly selected among positive standard of care (SOC)-nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) samples. For testing on ID NOW, the manufacturer's instructions were followed, except for the specimen addition step: 500 µl of the gargle specimen was added to the blue sample receiver with a pipette and gently mixed. Among the 202 positive samples by SOC-NAAT, 185 were positive by ID NOW (positive percent agreement [PPA]) = 91.6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 86.9-95.0). For the 17 discordant samples, cycle threshold (Ct ) values were all ≥31.0. The PPA was significantly lower among asymptomatic patients (84.4%; 95% CI: 73.2-92.3) versus symptomatic patients (95.2%; 95% CI: 89.8-98.2). The performance of the ID NOW for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection on gargle samples is excellent when Ct values are <31.0 and for patients that have COVID-19 compatible symptoms.

Keywords: Abbott ID NOW; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; gargle.

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