Impact of Nasopharyngeal Specimen Quality on SARS-CoV-2 Test Sensitivity.

Melissa Richard-GreenblattMatthew J ZieglerValerie BrombergElizabeth HuangHatem AbdallahPam TolomeoEbbing LautenbachLaurel GlaserBrendan J Kelly

Published in: medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences (2020)

Variability in NP specimen quality accounts for significant differences in the sensitivity of clinical SARS-CoV-2 assays. If unrecognized, low quality NP specimens, which are characterized by a low level of amplifiable human DNA target, may limit the application of SARS-CoV-2 Ct values to direct infection control and public health interventions.

Keyphrases

sars cov
public health
respiratory syndrome coronavirus
endothelial cells
quality improvement
computed tomography
physical activity
magnetic resonance imaging
image quality
cell free
magnetic resonance
contrast enhanced
positron emission tomography
fine needle aspiration
nucleic acid