Table 2.

Comparison of detections of respiratory viruses by RT-PCR in foam nasal swabs collected with and without the use of nasal saline spray^a

Respiratory virusb	No. of virus detections			Sensitivity, % (95% CI)		P value
	Both positive	Saline positive, dry negative	Dry positive, saline negative	NS with saline spray	Dry NS
Immunocompetent subjects
RSV	7	0	0	100	100
Flu A	12	1	0	100	92
Flu B	2	0	0	100	100
HMPV	2	0	0	100	100
PIV (types 1–4)	6	2	0	100	75
HCoV (4 types)	11	6	0	100	65
HRV	52	2	4	93	97
AdV	1	5	0	100	17
HBoV	4	1	1	83	83
Totalc	97	17	5	96 (90–98)	86 (78–91)	0.004
Rhinorrhea
Positive (n = 117)	84	11	4	96 (90–98)	89 (81–94)	0.06
Negative (n = 25)	13	6	1	95 (73–99)	70 (50–84)	0.007
HCT recipients
RSV	23	3	2	93	89
HMPV	2	1	0	100	67
PIV (types 1–4)	24	7	4	89	80
HCoV (4 types)	5	3	1	89	67
HRV	34	2	7	84	95
AdV	0	2	0	100	0
Totald	88	18	14	88 (78–94)	85 (76–91)	0.56
Rhinorrhea
Positive (n = 84)	62	8	7	91 (79–96)	90 (80–95)	0.80
Negative (n = 54)	26	9	7	83 (68–92)	79 (62–89)	0.66

^aResults are shown from 92 immunocompetent subjects with 142 incident upper respiratory infections and 40 HCT recipients with previously diagnosed respiratory virus infections with 140 weekly paired follow-up swabs.

^bRSV, respiratory syncytial virus; Flu, influenza virus; HMPV, human metapneumovirus; PIV, parainfluenza virus; HCoV, human coronaviruses (OC43, 229E, NL63, and HKU1); HRV, human rhinoviruses; AdV, adenovirus; and HBoV, human bocavirus.

^cA total of 38 swab pairs were negative in both samples; 104 pairs were positive in at least 1 swab, with 2 viruses detected in 9 swab pairs and 3 viruses detected in 3 swab pairs.

^dA total of 30 swab pairs were negative in both samples; 110 pairs were positive in at least 1 swab with 2 viruses detected in 10 swab pairs. No detections were made for influenza virus A, influenza virus B, and human bocavirus. Note that two patient symptom surveys were omitted because no data were reported for rhinorrhea.