SESSION TITLE: Late-breaking Abstract Posters
SESSION TYPE: Original Investigation Posters
PRESENTED ON: October 18-21, 2020
PURPOSE: COVID-19 is pandemic and global health issue declared by WHO. Pakistan is also badly affected by COVID-19. disease is caused by SARS-CoV-2. Diagnosis is commonly made by RT PCR of Nasopharyngeal or Oropharyngeal swab. purpose of this study is to compare positive detection rate of both these swabs.
METHODS: It was a retrospective study. A data record of 626 patients from 1st April, 2020 to 15th May, 2020 was taken from the settings of Kulsum International Hospital, Islamabad. Sampling criteria was established at the hospital in accordance with the WHO guidelines to perform the test for the diagnosis. Sample was Nasopharyngeal and Oropharyngeal swabs for SARS-CoV-2 detection taken simultaneously from all patients. Samples were collected according to guidelines. Patients who came with cough, fever, dyspnea or close contacts of SARS-CoV-2 patients at outpatient department and who got admitted to the hospital with any illnesses were included. Their socio-demographic characteristics were recorded. Data was entered in SPSS 22 version for analysis
RESULTS: A data of total 626 patients with age mean of 46 years was evaluated. Out of them 439 (70.1%) were men. Total nasopharyngeal positive swab rate was 20.8% while it was 11.5% and 59.5% in outpatient and inpatient respectively. In comparison to this total oropharyngeal positive swab rate was 17.6% while it was 10.5% in outpatient and 47.1% in inpatient (Table1). Also, nasopharyngeal swab showed good positive results as compared to oropharyngeal swabs irrespective of gender, inpatient and outpatient population with significant P value
CONCLUSIONS: Our study suggest that nasopharyngeal swab has more positive detection rate than oropharyngeal swab so it alone can be used for detection of SARS-CoV-2 in COVID-19 diagnosis.
CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS: Nasopharyngeal swab should be used as diagnostic tool to detect SARS-Cov-2 in COVID-19 patients.
DISCLOSURES: No relevant relationships by Shazli Manzoor, source=Web Response