Naso pharyngeal swab

From 16 March to 15 December 2020, 132,357 naso-pharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs were collected in the province of Teramo, Abruzzo Region, Italy, and tested for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA by a commercially available molecular assay. A total of 12,880 swabs resulted positive. For 8212 positive patients (4.150 women and 4.062 men) the median age was statistically different between women (median: 49.55 ± 23.9 of SD) and men (median: 48.35 ± 23.5 of SD) while no differences were found in the comparison between the cycle threshold for the N protein-encoding gene (C T N) median values and gender...

Introduction: There are still debatable facts about estimating the risk and severity of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in liver transplant recipients, as well as assessing the impact of the immunosuppressive therapy on the clinical course and incidence of liver failure. Material and Methods: We present a prospective study of liver transplant recipients with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) infection admitted for treatment to the department of First Clinic of Abdominal Surgery, Military Medical Academy, Sofia during 25...

PURPOSE: During the COVID-19 pandemic, a threatening bottleneck of medical staff arose due to a shortage of trained caregivers, who became infected while working with infectious patients. While telemedicine is rapidly evolving in the fields of teleconsultation and telesurgery, proper telediagnostic systems are not yet available, although the demand for contactless patient-doctor interaction is increasing. METHODS: In this project, the current limitations were addressed by developing a comprehensive telediagnostic system...

This report presents a case of a 74-year-old man who showed dramatic therapeutic response to treatment of coronavirus infectious disease-19 (COVID-19) pneumonia. He reported four-day history of sustained fever and acute progressive dyspnea. He developed severe respiratory failure, underwent urgent endotracheal intubation and showed marked elevation of inflammatory and coagulation markers such as c-reactive protein (CRP), ferritin, lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and D-dimer. Chest computed tomography (CT) demonstrated diffuse consolidation and ground glass opacity (GGO)...

BACKGROUND: Immunocompromised cancer patients are presumed to be at high risk of developing COVID-19 infection. Predisposing factors to contracting COVID-19 and to severe outcomes have been described in registries but were not compared between solid tumors and hematological malignancies. METHOD: This retrospective single oncologic center study included adults with solid tumors or hematological malignancies referred to testing by naso-pharyngeal swab for a SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR from March 10 to May 18, 2020...

A 41-year-old male with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) presented with complaints of recent onset limb weakness, diffuse body rash and fever. Computerized Tomography (CT) scan of the brain did not reveal a stroke but laboratory investigations of the patient portrayed multi-systemic involvement. Naso-pharyngeal swab for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was taken which resulted as positive. Soon after, a biopsy of the skin lesions revealed histo-pathological features of leukocytoclastic vasculitis...

Background and Aim: Although telemedicine is an option for the care of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients during the Coronavirus Disease (COVID)-19 pandemic, its feasibility and acceptability data are scant. Data on the frequency of COVID-19 among patients with IBD, quality of life (QOL), access to health care, psychological stress, and anxiety during the COVID-19 pandemic are scant. Methods: Video/audio consultation for IBD patients was undertaken after a web-based appointment, and data on acceptability, IBD control, Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS), and World Health Organization Quality of Life questionnaire (WHOQOL-Bref) were obtained electronically...

BACKGROUND: Influenza D virus (IDV), a segmented single-stranded negative-sense ribonucleic acid (RNA) virus, belongs to the new Delta influenza virus genus of the Orthomyxoviridae family. Cattle were proposed as the natural reservoir of IDV in which infection was associated with mild-to-moderate respiratory clinical signs (i.e. cough, nasal discharge and dyspnoea). METHODS AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In order to investigate the role of IDV in bovine respiratory disease, during the period 2017-2020, 883 nasal or naso-pharyngeal swabs from Canadian cattle with respiratory signs (cough and/or dyspnoea) were tested by (RT-)qPCR for IDV and other major bovine viral (bovine herpesvirus 1, bovine viral diarrhoea virus, bovine respiratory syncytial virus, bovine parainfluenza virus 3 and bovine coronavirus) and bacterial (Mannheimia haemolytica, Pasteurella multocida, Histophilus somni and Mycoplasma bovis) respiratory pathogens...

BACKGROUND AND AIM: SARS-CoV-2 quick testing is relevant for the containment of new pandemic waves. Antigen testing in self-collected saliva might be useful. We compared salivary and naso-pharyngeal swab (NPS) SARS-CoV-2 antigen detection by a rapid chemiluminescent assay (CLEIA) and two different point-of-care (POC) immunochromatographic assays, with that of molecular testing. METHODS: 234 patients were prospectively enrolled. Paired self-collected saliva (Salivette) and NPS were obtained to perform rRT-PCR, chemiluminescent (Lumipulse G) and POC (NPS: Fujirebio and Abbott; saliva: Fujirebio) for SARS-CoV-2 antigen detection...

Castiglione D'Adda is one of the municipalities more precociously and severely affected by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) epidemic in Lombardy. With our study we aimed to understand the diffusion of the infection by mass serological screening. We searched for SARS-CoV-2 IgGs in the entire population on a voluntary basis using lateral flow immunochromatographic tests (RICT) on capillary blood (rapid tests). We then performed chemioluminescent serological assays (CLIA) and naso-pharyngeal swabs (NPS) in a randomized representative sample and in each subject with a positive rapid test...

Raw municipal wastewater from five wastewater treatment plants representing the vast majority of the Qatar population was sampled between the third week of June 2020 and the end of August 2020, during the period of declining cases after the peak of the first wave of infection in May 2020. The N1 region of the SARS-CoV-2 genome was used to quantify the viral load in the wastewater using RT-qPCR. The trend in Ct values in the wastewater samples mirrored the number of new daily positive cases officially reported for the country, confirmed by RT-qPCR testing of naso-pharyngeal swabs...

To respond to the urgent need for COVID-19 testing, countries perform nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in centralized laboratories. Real-time RT-PCR (Reverse transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction), used to amplify and detect the viral RNA., is considered, as the current gold standard for diagnostics. It is an efficient process, but the complex engineering required for automated RNA extraction and temperature cycling makes it incompatible for use in point of care settings [1]...

Introduction: There is paucity of literature comparing outcomes of kidney transplant patients with Covid-19 to that of dialysis and waitlisted patients. This report describes our data, provides comparative analysis, together with meta-analysis of published studies and describes our protocols to restart the transplant programme. Methods: Data were analysed on kidney transplant, dialysis and waitlisted patients tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (naso-pharyngeal swab PCR) between March 1, 2020 and June 30, 2020 together with meta-analysis of 16 studies...

COVID-19 can involve several organs and systems, often with indirect and poorly clarified mechanisms. Different presentations of myocardial injury have been reported, with variable degrees of severity, often impacting on the prognosis of COVID-19 patients. The pathogenic mechanisms underlying cardiac damage in SARS-CoV-2 infection are under active investigation. We report the clinical and autopsy findings of a fatal case of Takotsubo Syndrome occurring in an 83-year-old patient with COVID-19 pneumonia. The patient was admitted to Emergency Department with dyspnea, fever and diarrhea...

COVID-19 or severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) appeared throughout the World and currently affected more than 9 million people and caused the death of around 470,000 patients. The novel strain of the coronavirus disease is transmittable at a devastating rate with a high rate of severe hospitalization even more so for the elderly population. Naso-oro-pharyngeal swab samples as the first step towards detecting suspected infection of SARS-CoV-2 provides a non-invasive method for PCR testing at a high confidence rate...

BACKGROUND: The current coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic is changing the organization of health care and has had a direct impact on the management of surgical patients.At the General Surgery Department of Sant'Anna University Hospital in Ferrara, Italy, surgical activities were progressively reduced during the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. During this period, only one operating room was available for elective cancer surgeries and another for emergency surgeries. Moreover, the number of beds for surgical patients had to be reduced to provide beds and personnel for the new COVID-19 wards...

Long and sharp objects can be foreign body intentionally or accidentally ingested. Timing of endoscopy relies on foreign body shape and size, localization in gastrointestinal tract, patient's clinical conditions, occurrence of symptoms, or onset of complications. We present a case of a 47-year-old male with no known comorbidity, who accidentally swallowed a portion of a naso-pharyngeal swab half-broken during the second diagnostic test for SARS-CoV-2. The intact swab had a total length of 15 cm and was made of wood...

AIM: This study aims to verify whether standardized saliva collection is suitable for SARS-CoV-2 molecular detection and IgA measurement. METHODS: 43 COVID-19 inpatients and 326 screening subjects underwent naso-pharyngeal (NP)-swab and saliva collection (Salivette). Inpatients also underwent repeated blood collections to evaluate inflammation and organs involvement. In all patients and subjects, SARS-CoV-2 (gene E) rRT-PCR was undertaken in saliva and NP-swabs...

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a systemic disease which can cause multiple organ failure and death primarly due to vascular endothelium injury. Severe acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) is the main cause of death: its management and treatment should be tailored to the individual COVID-19 patient's phenotype. Early diagnosis of COVID-19 is paramount for disease treatment and infection control. Naso-pharyngeal (NP) swab is commonly used as screening and diagnostic tool for COVID-19, but in some cases it can be resulted negative even in presence of clinical and epidemiological criteria, and typical radiological and laboratory findings of COVID-19, as we have observed...

Since January 2020, the world is facing the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2. In a big effort to cope with this outbreak, two Uruguayan institutions, Institut Pasteur de Montevideo and Universidad de la República, have developed and implemented a diagnosis pipeline based on qRT-PCR using entirely local resources. In this context, we performed comparative quantitative proteomic analysis from oro- and naso-pharyngeal swabs used for diagnosis. Tryptic peptides obtained from five positive and five negative samples were analysed by nano-LC-MS/MS using a Q-Exactive Plus mass spectrometer...