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Detecting and quantifying influenza virus with self‐ versus investigator‐collected mid‐turbinate nasal swabs
Author(s) -
Granados Andrea,
Quach Susan,
McGeer Allison,
Gubbay Jonathan B.,
Kwong Jeffrey C.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of medical virology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1096-9071
pISSN - 0146-6615
DOI - 10.1002/jmv.24753
Subject(s) - medicine , virology , viral load , virus , influenza a virus
We compared pairs of self‐ and investigator‐collected mid‐turbinate nasal swabs to detect and quantify influenza viral loads. We used RNase P, which reflects presence of human cells to determine adequate sample collection. Sixteen pairs of influenza‐positive swabs and 25 pairs of influenza‐negative swabs were included in this study. The median influenza A viral loads for self‐ and investigator‐collected swabs were 1.68 and 1.67 log 10 copies/mL, respectively ( P = 0.96). RNase P loads were also similar between self‐ and investigator‐collected swabs ( P = 0.51). Self‐collected mid‐turbinate nasal swabs yield comparable viral loads to investigator‐collected swabs, and therefore might be considered for research and clinical management.