Testing the Sensitivity of Conjunctival Swabs from Confirmed COVID-19 Patients

To investigate the incidence of COVID-19 viral RNA in the conjunctiva of patients priorly confirmed to have COVID-19, using a conjunctival swab and to determine swab sensitivity. This cross-sectional study enrolled patients who tested positive for COVID-19 with PCR via nasopharyngeal swabs. Conjunct...

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Published in:Clinical ophthalmology (Auckland, N.Z.) N.Z.), 2021-01, Vol.15, p.2489-2496
Main Authors: Hadrawi, Manal, Malak, Mohammad, Almahmoudi, Faeeqah, Mogharbel, Ahmed, Rozy, Omar, Hanafi, Somaya, Ali, Batool, Nabeel, Sanaa, Faqieha, Fatimah, Alzahrani, Khaled
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asthma
China
conjunctival swab
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Disease transmission
Fever
Hypertension
Infections
Medical research
Medicine, Experimental
Original Research
Patients
Risk factors
RNA
Saudi Arabia
sensitivity
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
specificity
Travel
Travelers
Viruses
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Summary:To investigate the incidence of COVID-19 viral RNA in the conjunctiva of patients priorly confirmed to have COVID-19, using a conjunctival swab and to determine swab sensitivity. This cross-sectional study enrolled patients who tested positive for COVID-19 with PCR via nasopharyngeal swabs. Conjunctival swabs were collected for each patient and subjected to RT-PCR assay. Demographic data and clinical history of patients were investigated and analysed. In this study, 4.9% of the patients tested positive with conjunctival swabs for COVID-19; 29.9%, 28.7%, 20.1%, and 12.2% of the patients had fever, shortness of breath, cough, and red eye, respectively. Among all patients, 18.9% and 73.2% had a history of traveling and contact with positive COVID-19 cases, respectively. There were significant correlations between the conjunctival results and diabetes (P=0.049) and hypertension (P=0.002). Traveling was a risk factor for positive conjunctival swab testing (P=0.016). The sensitivity of the conjunctival swab was 4.8%. Among all positive cases of COVID-19, a small percentage had positive results when tested using a conjunctival swab. Conjunctival swabs have very low sensitivity for the detection of COVID-19. However, tears could still be a mode of disease transmission, especially from patients to eye care specialists.
ISSN:1177-5467
1177-5483
1177-5483
DOI:10.2147/OPTH.S313721