SynthesisMedicina oral, patologia oral y cirugia bucal2021
Evaluation of saliva as a complementary technique to the diagnosis of COVID-19: a systematic review.
Synthesis in Medicina oral, patologia oral y cirugia bucal, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 15 citations in OpenAlex.
- Is saliva collected passively without forceful coughing sensitive to detect SARS-CoV-2 in ambulatory cases? A systematic review.Oral surgery, oral medicine, oral pathology and oral radiology · 2022Pooled it
- Diagnostic performance of different sampling approaches for SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR testing: a systematic review and meta-analysis.The Lancet. Infectious diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Rinsing a Pandemic Down: Effects of Oral Hygiene in SARS-CoV-2: A Two-Center Prospective Pilot Study.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Article
- Saliva as a Biological Fluid in SARS-CoV-2 Detection.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- COVID-19 on Oral Health: A New Bilateral Connection for the Pandemic.Biomedicines · 2023Review
- Saliva as an alternative specimen to nasopharyngeal swabs for COVID-19 diagnosis: Review.Access microbiology · 2022Review
- Review
- Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in Gargle, Spit, and Sputum Specimens.Microbiology spectrum · 2021Article
- COVID-19 Seroprevalence and Active Infection in an Asymptomatic Population.Frontiers in medicine · 2021Article
- Isothermal amplification and fluorescent detection of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-2 variant virus in nasopharyngeal swabs.PloS one · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundInfectious disease coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and it mainly affects the upper respiratory tract. The gold standard for its diagnosis is real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) performed on a nasopharyngeal swab. In contrast, testing saliva has significant advantages as a diagnostic method. MATERIAL AND
methodsWe searched for articles evaluating saliva as a diagnostic method for COVID-19 on the PUBMED/MEDLINE, WEB OF SCIENCE, COCHRANE, and SCIELO platforms. We initially found 233 articles and 20 were selected for inclusion following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses protocol: 18 cross-sectional studies and 2 case reports, including 8 from America, 8 from Asia, and 4 from Europe. The studies evaluated the presence of viral RNA, IgG, IgM, and IgA in samples of unstimulated saliva from adults with confirmed or suspected COVID-19. The vast majority of the studies performed RT-qPCR on the saliva samples and compared the results with the gold standard (a nasopharyngeal swab of the same patient).
resultsSaliva samples analyzed by RT-qPCR, reverse transcription isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP), spectroscopy, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) offer high sensitivity to detect SARS-CoV-2 in the early stages of the disease and among asymptomatic patients as compared to nasopharyngeal swab RT-qPCR. In addition, the self-collection of saliva offers the possibility of receiving telemedicine instructions to carry out the test, reducing the risk of contagion.
conclusionsThe diagnosis of COVID-19 through saliva is sensitive, non-invasive, and is of low risk for the healthcare professionals. However, further studies are recommended to validate its clinical use.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.