Abstract
BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Saliva samples are less invasive and more convenient for patients than naso- and/or oropharynx swabs (NOS). However, there is no US Food and Drug Administration-approved severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) rapid antigen test kit, which can be useful in a prolonged pandemic to reduce transmission by allowing suspected individuals to self-sampling. We evaluated the performances of High sensitive AQ(+) Rapid SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Test (AQ(+) kit) using nasopharyngeal swabs (NPs) and saliva specimens from the same patients in laboratory conditions. METHODS: The real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) test result was used for screening the inrolled individuals and compared as the gold standard. NP and saliva samples were collected from 100 rRT-PCR positives and 100 negative individuals and tested with an AQ(+) kit. RESULTS: The AQ(+) kit showed good performances in both NP and saliva samples with an overall accuracy of 98.5% and 94.0%, and sensitivity of 97.0% and 88.0%, respectively. In both cases, specificity was 100%. AQ(+) kit performance with saliva was in the range of the World Health Organization recommended value. CONCLUSION: xOur findings indicate that the saliva specimen can be used as an alternative and less invasive to NPs for quick and reliable SARS-CoV-2 antigen detection.