TY - JOUR
T1 - A comparison of cotton-tipped and nylon flocked swabs for culture of Neisseria gonorrhoeae from oropharyngeal samples
AU - Phillips, Tiffany R.
AU - Tabesh, Marjan
AU - Fairley, Christopher K.
AU - Maddaford, Kate
AU - Pasricha, Shivani
AU - Wigan, Rebecca
AU - De Petra, Vesna
AU - Williamson, Deborah A.
AU - Chow, Eric P.F.
N1 - EPFC and DAW are supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Emerging Leadership Investigator Grant ( GNT1172873 and GNT1174555 , respectively). CKF is supported by an Australian NHMRC Leadership Investigator Grant ( GNT1172900 ).
PY - 2021/11/1
Y1 - 2021/11/1
N2 - Our aim was to determine if there was a difference in culture positivity for oropharyngeal gonorrhoea when sampling using a nylon-flocked versus cotton-tipped swab. We collected FLOQSwabs and cotton-tipped swabs from individuals aged ≥ 18 years who had untreated oropharyngeal gonorrhoea detected by NAAT between November 2019-June 2020.Of 78 participants, 32 (41.0%) were culture-positive for N. gonorrhoeae from either swab. Of these 32, 29 (90.6%, 95%CI: 75.0%-98.0%) were positive on both swabs, one (3.1%, 95%CI: 0.0%-16.2%) tested positive on FLOQSwab only and two (6.2%, 95%CI: 0.1%-20.8%) tested positive on cotton-tipped swabs only. There was moderate agreement between the swabs in the amount of bacterial growth (Cohen's Kappa (k)=0.745; 95%CI: 0.622-0.868, p<0.001). Our results showed that the proportion of positive results was comparable using the FLOQSwabs versus the cotton-tipped swabs for oropharyngeal gonorrhoea culture.
AB - Our aim was to determine if there was a difference in culture positivity for oropharyngeal gonorrhoea when sampling using a nylon-flocked versus cotton-tipped swab. We collected FLOQSwabs and cotton-tipped swabs from individuals aged ≥ 18 years who had untreated oropharyngeal gonorrhoea detected by NAAT between November 2019-June 2020.Of 78 participants, 32 (41.0%) were culture-positive for N. gonorrhoeae from either swab. Of these 32, 29 (90.6%, 95%CI: 75.0%-98.0%) were positive on both swabs, one (3.1%, 95%CI: 0.0%-16.2%) tested positive on FLOQSwab only and two (6.2%, 95%CI: 0.1%-20.8%) tested positive on cotton-tipped swabs only. There was moderate agreement between the swabs in the amount of bacterial growth (Cohen's Kappa (k)=0.745; 95%CI: 0.622-0.868, p<0.001). Our results showed that the proportion of positive results was comparable using the FLOQSwabs versus the cotton-tipped swabs for oropharyngeal gonorrhoea culture.
KW - Clinical Practice
KW - FLOQSwab
KW - Oropharyngeal Gonorrhoea
U2 - 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2021.115455
DO - 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2021.115455
M3 - Article
C2 - 34256252
AN - SCOPUS:85109780726
SN - 0732-8893
VL - 101
JO - Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease
JF - Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease
IS - 3
M1 - 115455
ER -
