ArticleJournal of medical virology2014
Comparison of sputum and nasopharyngeal swabs for detection of respiratory viruses.
Article in Journal of medical virology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Pulmonary microbiology and microbiota in adults with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Respiratory research · 2025Pooled it
- Underascertainment of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection in Adults Due to Diagnostic Testing Limitations: A Systematic Literature Review and Meta-analysis.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2023Pooled it
- Comparison of detection rate of 16 sampling methods for respiratory viruses: a Bayesian network meta-analysis of clinical data and systematic review.BMJ global health · 2020Pooled it
- SARS-CoV-2 detection in different respiratory sites: A systematic review and meta-analysis.EBioMedicine · 2020Pooled it
- Practical Guidance for Clinical Microbiology Laboratories: Viruses Causing Acute Respiratory Tract Infections.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2019Guideline
- Enhanced Detection of Community-Acquired Pneumonia Pathogens With the BioFire® Pneumonia FilmArray® Panel.Diagnostic microbiology and infectious disease · 2021Trial
- Viral load is strongly associated with length of stay in adults hospitalised with viral acute respiratory illness.The Journal of infection · 2016Trial
- Chest Computed Tomography Patterns Associated with Severity in Adults with Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Infectious diseases and therapy · 2026Article
- Improving the accuracy of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) incidence estimates among hospitalised adults in Bristol, UK.BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Detection by Nasopharyngeal Swabs Alone Underestimates Respiratory Syncytial Virus-Related Hospitalization Incidence in Adults: The Multispecimen Study's Final Analysis.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Diagnosis of Community-Acquired Pneumonia Due to Influenza or Respiratory Syncytial Virus: Evaluation of RT-PCR Sensitivity in Nasopharyngeal, Saliva, and Sputum Samples.Pathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Article
- Specimen adequacy assay controls in nucleic acid amplification tests do not correlate with nasopharyngeal swab collection method.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2024Article
- Faecal shedding of SARS-CoV-2 from patients with asymptomatic and mild COVID-19 without gastrointestinal symptoms in Ghana.BMC research notes · 2024Article
- Real-life Assessment of BioFire FilmArray Pneumonia Panel in Adults Hospitalized With Respiratory Illness.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2024Article
- Association between lipid profiles and viral respiratory infections in human sputum samples.Respiratory research · 2022Article
- Does the timing of saliva collection affect the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection?Journal of infection and chemotherapy : official journal of the Japan Society of Chemotherapy · 2022Article
- Rates of Medically Attended RSV Among US Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Open forum infectious diseases · 2022Article
- Saliva is superior over nasopharyngeal swab for detecting SARS-CoV2 in COVID-19 patients.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Prediction of in-hospital recurrence and false-negative results in patients with COVID-19 by red blood cell values on admission.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Diagnostic tests for respiratory viral infections use traditionally either nasopharyngeal washes or swabs. Sputum is representative of the lower respiratory tract but is used rarely for viral testing. The aim of this study was to compare the detection rates of respiratory viruses from nasopharyngeal swabs and sputum using a multiplex real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Adults who were admitted or presented to the clinics of Gil Medical Center with acute respiratory symptoms were recruited from 1 November 2012 to 31 March 2013. Paired specimens of nasopharyngeal swabs and sputum were obtained from 154 subjects, and RNA was extracted and tested for 16 different respiratory viruses using the Anyplex II RV16 Detection kit (Seegene, Seoul, Korea). The positive rate was 53% (81/154) for nasopharyngeal swabs and 68% (105/154) for sputum (P < 0.001). One hundred thirty-four viruses were identified for 107 illnesses. Influenza A virus, RSV A, HRV, coronavirus OC43, and adenovirus were detected more frequently in sputum samples than in nasopharyngeal swabs (P < 0.001). Importantly, 12 of 44 (27%) influenza A infections and 11 of 27 (41%) RSV infections were positive in only sputum samples. The detection rates of respiratory viruses from sputum samples were significantly higher than those from nasopharyngeal swabs in adults using real-time multiplex RT-PCR. These findings suggest that sputum would benefit for the detection of respiratory viruses by nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) in patients who produce sputum. Further studies are needed to establish standardized RNA extraction methods from sputum samples.
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