A cautionary tale of false-negative nasopharyngeal COVID-19 testing

Sean S.M. Bullis; Jessica W. Crothers; Shawn Wayne; Andrew J. Hale

IDCases (Jan 2020)

A cautionary tale of false-negative nasopharyngeal COVID-19 testing

Sean S.M. Bullis,
Jessica W. Crothers,
Shawn Wayne,
Andrew J. Hale

Affiliations

Sean S.M. Bullis: University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, VT, United States
Jessica W. Crothers: University of Vermont Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Pathology at Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT United States
Shawn Wayne: University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, VT, United States
Andrew J. Hale: University of Vermont Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United States; Corresponding author at: University of Vermont Medical Center, Infectious Disease Unit. 111 Colchester Avenue, Mailstop 115 SM2, Burlington VT 05401, United States.

Journal volume & issue: Vol. 20
p. e00791

Abstract

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There remains diagnostic uncertainty regarding the sensitivity of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in detection of SARS-CoV-2 from nasopharyngeal specimens. We present a case where two nasopharyngeal specimens were negative, followed by a positive sputum sample. Serial testing for COVID-19 is indicated in patients with high pretest probability of disease.

Published in IDCases

ISSN: 2214-2509 (Online)
Publisher: Elsevier
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Medicine: Internal medicine: Infectious and parasitic diseases
Website: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/idcases/

About the journal

Abstract

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