A throat swab refers to the use of a sterile medical long flocked swab to dip a small number of secretions from the pharynx of the subject.
And then carry out the detection of respiratory viruses, bacteria and other pathogenic microorganisms.
The collection site of the throat swab is the pharynx and tonsils of the subject, and precautions should be taken when collecting.
Swab Specimen Collection details are as follows:
Swab Specimen Collection
1. Drinking water before the oropharyngeal test strip will dilute the virus attached to the pharynx, especially drinking hot water will inhibit the activity of the virus.
In order to improve the accuracy of the nucleic acid detection of throat swabs, required 15-30 minutes before the test. Do not drink water to ensure the high accuracy of throat swab nucleic acid detection;
2. We do not recommend that patients with well-exposed larynx keep hair in order to reduce the occupational exposure risk of the sampler;
3. To prevent vomiting, avoid eating two hours before collecting throat swab specimens;
4. Do not smoke, drink, or chew gum half an hour before sample collection.
In addition, the basic steps of throat swab collection are:
1. Ask the patient to sit down, tilt their head back, open their mouth wide, and take out the surface secretions in the nasal cavity;
2. The sampler fixes the tongue with a tongue depressor, and uses a cotton swab to cross the base of the tongue to the posterior pharyngeal wall and the lateral wall of the tonsillar recess, etc.;
3. Wipe 3-5 times repeatedly to collect mucosal cells;
4. Gently remove the test strip, avoid touching the tongue, uvula, oral mucosa and saliva;
5. Insert the test strip back into the sampling device or a suitable transfer device.
There are various Specimen Collection swabs available on the market.
Which one is the best one to choose?
CellMedical recommends “synthetic flocked swabs“.
Compared with traditional wound swabs (although they are also made of synthetic fibres), the amount of samples collected and released by this swab is 3 times higher, and it does not damage the cell samples, which can ensure the survival rate of the cell samples and has no fatty acid residues. Contains substances that inactivate certain viruses and inhibit PCR detection.
Nasal Gene Sampling Flocked Swab Oral Gene Sampling Flocked Swab
Although the positive rate of the new coronavirus RNA test is directly related to the quality of the reagent itself, the quality control of the whole process is more critical, which includes sample collection, transportation, storage, testing and all consumables used for testing. As long as one step is not well controlled, it is difficult to achieve the quality (detection rate) of the reagent itself.