Open AccessComparison of participant-collected nasal and staff-collected oropharyngeal specimens for human ribonuclease P detection with RT-PCR during a community-based study
Author(s) -
Mitchell Arnold,
Jonathan L. Temte,
Shari Barlow,
Cristalyne Bell,
Maureen Goss,
Emily Temte,
Mary Checovich,
Erik Reisdorf,
Samantha Scott,
Kyley Guenther,
Mary Wedig,
Peter Shult,
Amra Uzicanin
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0239000
Subject(s) - medicine
We analyzed 4,352 participant- and staff-collected respiratory specimens from 2,796 subjects in the Oregon Child Absenteeism due to Respiratory Disease Study. Trained staff collected oropharyngeal specimens from school-aged children with acute respiratory illness while household participants of all ages collected their own midturbinate nasal specimens in year one and anterior nasal specimens in year two. Human ribonuclease P levels were measured using RT-PCR for all staff- and participant-collected specimens to determine adequacy, defined as Cycle threshold less than 38. Overall, staff- and participant-collected specimens were 99.9% and 96.4% adequate, respectively. Participant-collected midturbinate specimens were 95.2% adequate in year one, increasing to 97.2% in year two with anterior nasal collection. The mean human ribonuclease P Cycle threshold for participant-collected specimens was 31.18 in year one and 28.48 in year two. The results from this study suggest that community-based participant collection of respiratory specimens is comparable to staff-collected oropharyngeal specimens, is feasible, and may be optimal with anterior nasal collection.