PCR of gargle lavage samples as effective as nasopharyngeal swabs to
identify SARS-CoV-2 infection

Date:
July 29, 2021
Source:
American Society for Microbiology
Summary:
Twenty-six subjects from a cohort of 80 tested positive for
SARS-CoV- 2 via nasopharyngeal swab, and all 26 tested positive
using gargle lavage (mouthwash), according to new research.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Twenty-six subjects from a cohort of 80 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2
via nasopharyngeal swab, and all 26 tested positive using gargle lavage (mouthwash), according to new research published in Microbiology
Spectrum, the new open-access journal of the American Society for
Microbiology. That's good news, because nasopharyngeal swabbing, currently
the gold standard for collecting samples for COVID testing, has a low rate
of acceptance due to the discomfort of having a nasal passage swabbed.


==========================================================================
The detection method for testing samples used in this study is the highly sensitive real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). "Our results
show that in all cases, where people were positively tested by the gold standard nasal swabbing, one could also detect the virus in gargle lavage
by the same RT-PCR method," said corresponding author Christof R. Hauck,
PhD, professor of cell biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department
of Biology, University of Konstanz, Germany.

This sampling procedure can be conducted safely in a general
practitioner's office without extra protective equipment for
physicians' staff, as the patients themselves perform the sampling,"
said Dr. Hauck. "We usually sent the patients with the gargle solution
and sampling container outside." There, they gargled in front of a window, observed by a physician's staff member. Thus, "we need not expose trained personnel to the danger of taking samples from so many potentially
infected people." Study subjects had typical respiratory symptoms or
known contact with infected persons. Each received both a nasal swab administered by a professional health practitioner, "which was needed
for the regular diagnostic procedure, and each self-performed a gargle
lavage," said Dr. Hauck. "These paired samples were then transferred
to the central diagnostic lab, where they were analyzed in parallel,
so that the results could be directly compared." "Besides performing diagnostics on symptomatic patients, we are involved in regular SARS-CoV-2 surveillance on our university campus, where we test people twice a
week. As nasal swabbing is not very pleasant, we were looking for an alternative, and gargle lavage turned out to be highly accepted," said Dr.

Hauck.

"By finding complete congruence of results obtained with paired samples
of a sizeable patient cohort, our results strongly support the idea that
the painless self-collection of gargle lavage provides a suitable and uncomplicated source for reliable SARS-CoV-2 detection," said Dr. Hauck.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
American_Society_for_Microbiology. Note: Content may be edited for style
and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Johannes Zander, Stephan Scholtes, Maximilian Ottinger, Marcel
Kremer,
Azadeh Kharazi, Vanessa Stadler, Julia Bickmann, Christian Zeleny,
Johannes W. P. Kuiper, Christof R. Hauck. Self-Collected Gargle
Lavage Allows Reliable Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in an Outpatient
Setting.

Microbiology Spectrum, 2021; DOI: 10.1128/Spectrum.00361-21 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/07/210729122114.htm

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