Original content provided by Copan.
As all lab technicians, clinicians and microbiologists understand, influenza is the gift that keeps on giving. Arriving every year as a different strain with various genetic changes, the challenges of diagnosing influenza is met and answered with proper sample collection and accurate point-of-care testing.
The Process for Collecting Samples
Nasal washes, aspirates and swabbing are the different methods to collect a sample to test for influenza. The process recommended by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) involves a nasopharyngeal swab and a rapid influenza diagnostic test.
Accuracy and Discomfort of Different Types of Intranasal Specimen Collection Methods
A recent study set out to find a suitable swab for sample collection for flu testing with improved patient acceptance. The study, Accuracy and Discomfort of Different Types of Intranasal Specimen Collection Methods for Molecular Influenza Testing in Emergency Department Patients, was published by the National Library of Medicine and aimed to determine the accuracy and patient comfort levels of three separate swabs (nasal, midtubinate, nasopharyngeal) to identify a suitable alternative that would be as sensitive, as the recommended nasopharyngeal swab, while also reducing the level of patient discomfort.
For this the study, “swabs taken from the anterior nares and midtubinate region were compared to a nasopharyngeal swab for accuracy of influenza polymerase chain reaction testing and for patient discomfort.”
Copan FLOQSwabs® vs. Other Flocked Swabs
484 Emergency Department patients with symptoms resembling the flu were sampled. Each patient was swabbed with all three swabs and asked to report their level of discomfort on a validated 6-point scale. Outcomes were compared by a test performance between the nasal and mid-turbinate swabs to that of the nasopharyngeal swabs.
Copan offers an anatomically designed contoured flocked swab with a stopper to reach the mid-turbinate region for respiratory virus sampling in children and in adults. Copan developed the contoured flocked swabs with the patient's comfort in mind, to make mid-turbinate nasal collection intuitive, consistent, and straightforward.
The mid-turbinate anatomic and ergonomic design has excellent respiratory epithelial cell sampling, and maximizes sample collection, while minimising patient discomfort. Copan's FLOQSwabs® have no internal absorbent core to disperse and entrap the specimen, which allows for over 90% release of the sample, while the short nylon® fibers, arranged in a perpendicular fashion, creates a highly absorbent thin layer.
Results
The sensitivity for detecting influenza was 98% with the midturbinate over 84.4% which was found with the nasal. The specificity was 98.5% with the midturbinate versus 99.1% with the nasal, with 0.6% difference which is not considered significant. The levels of discomfort rated the nasal swab a 0 and the midturbinate at 1, compared to the traditional nasopharyngeal sample which was a 3.
Conclusion
While the levels of sensitivity and specificity were impressive, the low levels of discomfort reported by the patients make Copan’s uniquely designed swab with a stopper an excellent alternative for routine use in emergency departments.
The study concludes that “[c]ompared with the reference standard nasopharyngeal swab specimen, midturbinate swab specimens provided a significantly more comfortable sampling experience, with only a small sacrifice in sensitivity for influenza detection. Nasal swab specimens were significantly less sensitive than midturbinate swab. Our results suggest the midturbinate swab is the sampling method of choice for molecular influenza testing in ED”!
View the collection of intuitively and anatomically designed flocked swabs.