Open AccessEvaluation of Transport Media and Specimen Transport Conditions for the Detection of SARS-CoV-2 by Use of Real-Time Reverse Transcription-PCR
Author(s) -
Amy Rogers,
Russell E. Baumann,
Gwynngelle A. Borillo,
Ron M. Kagan,
Hollis J. Batterman,
Marzena Galdzicka,
Elizabeth M. Marlowe
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of clinical microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.349
H-Index - 255
eISSN - 1070-633X
pISSN - 0095-1137
DOI - 10.1128/jcm.00708-20
Subject(s) - bronchoalveolar lavage , sputum , covid-19 , coronavirus , virology , medicine , vero cell , economic shortage , lung , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , pathology , virus , tuberculosis , infectious disease (medical specialty) , disease , linguistics , philosophy , government (linguistics) , outbreak
The global coronavirus (CoV) disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in a worldwide shortage of viral transport media and raised questions about specimen stability. The objective of this study was to determine the stability of severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA in specimen transport media under various storage conditions. Transport media tested included UTM, UTM-RT, ESwab, M4, and saline (0.9% NaCl). Specimen types tested included nasopharyngeal/oropharyngeal swabs in the above-named transport media, bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid, and sputum. A high-titer SARS-CoV-2 remnant patient specimen was spiked into pooled SARS-CoV-2 RNA-negative specimen remnants for the various medium types. Aliquots of samples were stored at 18°C to 26°C, 2°C to 8°C, and -10°C to -30°C and then tested at time points up to 14 days. Specimens consistently yielded amplifiable RNA with mean cycle threshold differences of <3 over the various conditions assayed, thus supporting the use and transport of alternative collection media and specimen types under a variety of temperature storage conditions.