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- RT-LAMP on saliva specimens in light of ongoing SARS CoV 2 pandemic
We read with great interest the article by Dao Thi et al in which the performance of reverse transcription-loop-mediated isothermal amplification (RT-LAMP) assay were compared with that of real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay for detecting SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid (1). Currently RT-PCR coupled with respiratory swab specimens in universal transport media (UTM) is the most widely used testing method for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In the clinical setting repeat sampling in the patient often aids in diagnosis and monitoring of COVID-19. Hence increased utilization of laboratory resources such as PCR reagents, flocked swabs and UTM during this pandemic have caused supply shortage of these heavily used consumables. Recent deployment of novel testing strategies using alternative specimen types had generated some exciting findings. Multiple studies had previous proposed the use of saliva for COVID-19 diagnosis (2). A recent study (3) suggested saliva collected in patients with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection can substitute nasopharyngeal swabs with very high diagnostic concordance. There were high variations in RNase P gene Ct values in nasopharyngeal swabs than that in the paired saliva samples (4), indicating a greater degree of inconsistency in the former. This highlights pre-analytical variability could be introduced during the sampling of naso/oropharyngeal swabs although this procedure is usually conducted by trained medical personne...
Show MoreCompeting Interests: None declared.