Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Humans , SARS-CoV-2 , Retrospective Studies , Respiratory Aerosols and Droplets , Hospitals , Patients' Rooms , RNA, ViralABSTRACT
The development of an antiviral response against RNA viruses, including influenza, Respiratory Syncytial Virus or SARS-CoV-2, relies on the activation of MAVS, a mitochondrial and peroxisomal signaling hub protein. MAVS coordinates multiple signaling cascades that ultimately result in the production of interferons and proinflammatory cytokines essential to restrict virus replication and spreading.
ABSTRACT
3D-printed alternatives to standard flocked swabs were rapidly developed to provide a response to the unprecedented and sudden need for an exponentially growing amount of diagnostic tools to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. In light of the anticipated shortage, a hospital-based 3D-printing platform was implemented in our institution for the production of swabs for nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal sampling based on the freely available, open-source design provided to the community by University of South Florida's Health Radiology and Northwell Health System teams as a replacement for locally used commercial swabs. Validation of our 3D-printed swabs was performed with a head-to-head diagnostic accuracy study of the 3D-printed "Northwell model" with the cobas PCR Media® swab sample kit. We observed an excellent concordance (total agreement 96.8%, Kappa 0.936) in results obtained with the 3D-printed and flocked swabs, indicating that the in-house 3D-printed swab could be used reliably in the context of a shortage of flocked swabs. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report on autonomous hospital-based production and clinical validation of 3D-printed swabs.