Saliva as a diagnostic specimen for detection of SARS-CoV-2 in suspected patients: a scoping review.
Infect Dis Poverty
; 9(1): 100, 2020 Jul 22.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-662434
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
From the begging months of 2020 a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2, also called 2019-nCoV) caused a devastating global outbreak. At present, the diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is made through a nasopharyngeal swab based on reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique. However, some recent studies suggested the possible role of oral fluids and saliva in the detection of SARS-CoV-2. The purpose of this scoping review is evaluating the available evidence regarding the efficacy of saliva as a diagnostic specimen in COVID-19 patients.METHODS:
A systematic literature review of six databases (PubMed, Scopus, The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials [CENTRAL], Science Direct, Web of Science and Google scholar) was carried out without any restrictions on date of publication to identify the reliability of saliva as a diagnostic specimen for detection of SARS-CoV-2 in suspected patients.RESULTS:
Nine eligible articles were included in this review based on our described method. All the included studies are based on clinical surveys among patients with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. Most of studies included in this review, reported that there is no statistically significant difference between nasopharyngeal or sputum specimens and saliva samples regarding viral load.CONCLUSIONS:
Despite limitations of this study, the findings of this review suggest that the use of self-collected saliva as a non-invasive specimen has proper accuracy and reliability regarding detection of SARS-CoV-2 based on RT-PCR technique.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pneumonia, Viral
/
Saliva
/
Coronavirus Infections
/
Viral Load
/
Betacoronavirus
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Reviews
/
Systematic review/Meta Analysis
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Infect Dis Poverty
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S40249-020-00728-w
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