Imperial College London
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ProfessorGrahamCooke

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Infectious Disease

Vice Dean (Research); Professor of Infectious Diseases
 
 
 
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g.cooke

 
 
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Location

 

Infectious Diseases SectionMedical SchoolSt Mary's Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Burdett:2021:10.1186/s12879-021-06316-z,
author = {Burdett, A and Toumazou, C and Sahoo, R and Mujan, A and Hon, T-K and Bedzo-Nutakor, J and Casali, N and Karvela, M and Sohbati, M and Cooke, GS and Davies, GW and Moore, LSP},
doi = {10.1186/s12879-021-06316-z},
journal = {BMC Infectious Diseases},
pages = {1--10},
title = {Pooled sputum to optimise the efficiency and utility of rapid, point-of-care molecular SARS-CoV-2 testing},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-06316-z},
volume = {21},
year = {2021}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - BackgroundAs SARS-CoV-2 testing expands, particularly to widespread asymptomatic testing, high sensitivity point-of-care PCR platforms may optimise potential benefits from pooling multiple patients’ samples.MethodWe tested patients and asymptomatic citizens for SARS-CoV-2, exploring the efficiency and utility of CovidNudge (i) for detection in individuals’ sputum (compared to nasopharyngeal swabs), (ii) for detection in pooled sputum samples, and (iii) by modelling roll out scenarios for pooled sputum testing.ResultsAcross 295 paired samples, we find no difference (p = 0.1236) in signal strength for sputum (mean amplified replicates (MAR) 25.2, standard deviation (SD) 14.2, range 0–60) compared to nasopharyngeal swabs (MAR 27.8, SD 12.4, range 6–56). At 10-sample pool size we find some drop in absolute strength of signal (individual sputum MAR 42.1, SD 11.8, range 13–60 vs. pooled sputum MAR 25.3, SD 14.6, range 1–54; p < 0.0001), but only marginal drop in sensitivity (51/53,96%). We determine a limit of detection of 250 copies/ml for an individual test, rising only four-fold to 1000copies/ml for a 10-sample pool. We find optimal pooled testing efficiency to be a 12–3-1-sample model, yet as prevalence increases, pool size should decrease; at 5% prevalence to maintain a 75% probability of negative first test, 5-sample pools are optimal.ConclusionWe describe for the first time the use of sequentially dipped sputum samples for rapid pooled point of care SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing. The potential to screen asymptomatic cohorts rapidly, at the point-of-care, with PCR, offers the potential to quickly identify and isolate positive individuals within a population “bubble”.
AU  - Burdett,A
AU  - Toumazou,C
AU  - Sahoo,R
AU  - Mujan,A
AU  - Hon,T-K
AU  - Bedzo-Nutakor,J
AU  - Casali,N
AU  - Karvela,M
AU  - Sohbati,M
AU  - Cooke,GS
AU  - Davies,GW
AU  - Moore,LSP
DO  - 10.1186/s12879-021-06316-z
EP  - 10
PY  - 2021///
SN  - 1471-2334
SP  - 1
TI  - Pooled sputum to optimise the efficiency and utility of rapid, point-of-care molecular SARS-CoV-2 testing
T2  - BMC Infectious Diseases
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12879-021-06316-z
UR  - https://bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-021-06316-z
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/90294
VL  - 21
ER  -
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