Abstract:

Objective To compare the positive determination rates of common respiratory virus antigens in nasopharyngeal swabs and oropharyngeal swabs,and to provide a reference for clinical selection of sample types.Methods The oropharyngeal swab samples and nasopharyngeal swab samples were collected from 199 children with upper respiratory tract infection. According to random principle,the sequence of samples collected from different patients was determined,and 2 samples were submitted for determination at the same time. Influenza virus（Flu）A,FluB,respiratory syncytial virus（RSV） and adenovirus（ADV） antigens were determined by colloidal gold immunoassay. Results Of the 199 children with upper respiratory tract infection,the total positive rates of FluA,FluB,RSV and ADV were 31.2%,10.6%,6.0%,5.5% and 52.3% for nasopharyngeal swabs and 20.6%,7.0%,5.0%,5.0% and 37.6% for oropharyngeal swabs,respectively. The positive rates of FluA,FluB and 4 viruses were higher in nasopharyngeal swabs than those in oropharyngeal swabs（P<0.05）,while the positive rates of RSV and ADV between the 2 kinds of samples showed no statistical significance（P>0.05）. Nasopharyngeal swabs were positive,and oropharyngeal swabs were negative in 40 children. Nasopharyngeal swabs were negative,and oropharyngeal swabs were positive in 11 children. Nasopharyngeal swab results were used as standard,the sensitivities of oropharyngeal swabs to FluA,FluB,RSV and ADV were 59.7%,61.9%,75.0% and 45.5%,respectively,and the specificities were >97%.Conclusions Combined with the convenience of operation,nasopharyngeal swabs should be selected for respiratory virus determination in children when taking a single pharyngeal swab sample. Since nasopharyngeal swabs are negative,and oropharyngeal swabs are positive in a few cases,samples from both nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs may be collected for highly suspected cases in clinical practice in order to improve the positive rate.

Key words: Respiratory virus, Antigen, Nasopharyngeal swab, Oropharyngeal swab, Children