flocked swabs definition

Flocked swab using spray dense planting nylon fiber technology;The volume of samples collected and released is 3 times higher than that of traditional swabs. Ensure the survival rate of cell samples, no residual fatty acids, and will not affect the test results.

Picture of sampling flocking swab

Why use flocked swabs？

COVID-19 is New Coronavirus’s variant coronavirus, which can cause pneumonia after human infection. It belongs to an acute respiratory infectious disease, which is highly infectious and generally susceptible to people. It is easy to replicate in the upper respiratory tract of human body. In general, new crown nucleic acids are detected rapidly within 96 hours after infection. Testers can find viruses in the human upper respiratory tract. Experiments show that flocking swab can quickly elute > 95% of the original samples, and easily improve the detection sensitivity.

Application of sampling flocked swabs.

The upper respiratory tract of the human body includes the nasal cavity, pharynx and throat. That is to say, if a person is infected with COVID-19, he can extract the nucleic acid of the virus in the nasal cavity, pharynx and larynx in 96 hours. Therefore, we generally sample these locations when we carry out the rapid detection of new crown nucleic acid.

we distinguish swabs by different sampling positions. For nasal sampling, we become nasopharyngeal flocked swabs; For oral sampling, we become oropharyngeal flocked swabs.

What is the difference between nasopharyngeal swabs and oropharyngeal flocked swabs?

Nasopharyngeal swabs and oropharyngeal swabs differ in material hardness in addition to the differences in sampling sites. The nasopharyngeal swab is generally slender and soft, and can change its shape along the nasal cavity, which is convenient for the sampling personnel to probe into the upper respiratory tract along the nasal cavity. The oropharyngeal swab will be thick and hard.

In terms of comfort, there are also great differences between the two. Since gas exchange is often carried out in the nasal cavity, the swab shall be fully extended to the end of the nasal cavity during sampling to ensure that sufficient concentration of samples are collected.  This usually brings very uncomfortable feeling to the subject, and sometimes even leads to epistaxis.The oropharyngeal swab only needs to collect the pharyngeal sample, and only needs the person to open his mouth for collection. Although it occasionally causes a temporary feeling of nausea, the discomfort will not last too long.

There are also obvious differences between the two in drug loading. Studies have shown that in patients infected with the new crown virus, the amount of drug carried on the nasopharyngeal swab is significantly higher than that on the oropharyngeal swab. In other words, the detection amount of nasopharyngeal swabs is generally higher than that of oropharyngeal swabs.

In addition to nasopharyngeal flocked swabs and oropharyngeal swabs, there are anal swabs. As the name suggests, anal swab is a kind of test for patients with gastrointestinal symptoms. It can effectively improve the detection rate, but it is not widely used because of the inconvenience of sampling.

Attention

After sampling the flocking swab, we should immediately put the swab into the storage tube to avoid polluting the sample.  Then, the subsequent rapid detection process of new crown nucleic acid was carried out. No matter what kind of swab is used, the process of rapid detection of new crown nucleic acid is the same.  The rapid detection of new crown nucleic acid was completed in four independent areas of the laboratory, and the test results were obtained.