{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,20]],"date-time":"2026-01-20T06:24:42Z","timestamp":1768890282555,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":20,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,21]],"date-time":"2021-10-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1634774400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100006673","name":"Fonds L\u00e9on Fredericq","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["NA. Recipient: Gilles Darcis"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NA. Recipient: Gilles Darcis"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100006673","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Pathogens"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The testing and isolation of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are indispensable tools to control the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. PCR tests are considered the \u201cgold standard\u201d of COVID-19 testing and mostly involve testing nasopharyngeal swab specimens. Our study aimed to compare the sensitivity of tests for various sample specimens. Seventy-five participants with confirmed COVID-19 were included in the study. Nasopharyngeal swabs, oropharyngeal swabs, Oracol-collected saliva, throat washes and rectal specimens were collected along with pooled swabs. Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire to correlate specific clinical symptoms and the symptom duration with the sensitivity of detecting COVID-19 in various sample specimens. Sampling was repeated after 7 to 10 days (T2), then after 14 to 20 days (T3) to perform a longitudinal analysis of sample specimen sensitivity. At the first time point, the highest percentages of SARS-CoV-2-positive samples were observed for nasopharyngeal samples (84.3%), while 74%, 68.2%, 58.8% and 3.5% of throat washing, Oracol-collected saliva, oropharyngeal and rectal samples tested positive, respectively. The sensitivity of all sampling methods except throat wash samples decreased rapidly at later time points compared to the first collection. The throat washing method exhibited better performance than the gold standard nasopharyngeal swab at the second and third time points after the first positive test date. Nasopharyngeal swabs were the most sensitive specimens for early detection after symptom onset. Throat washing is a sensitive alternative method. It was found that SARS-CoV-2 persists longer in the throat and saliva than in the nasopharynx.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/pathogens10111362","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,21]],"date-time":"2021-10-21T23:27:39Z","timestamp":1634858859000},"page":"1362","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["In-Depth Longitudinal Comparison of Clinical Specimens to Detect SARS-CoV-2"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Justine","family":"Def\u00eache","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Microbiology, University of Li\u00e8ge, 4000 Li\u00e8ge, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Samira","family":"Azarzar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Li\u00e8ge University Hospital, 4000 Li\u00e8ge, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Alyssia","family":"Mesdagh","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Li\u00e8ge University Hospital, 4000 Li\u00e8ge, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Patricia","family":"Dellot","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Li\u00e8ge University Hospital, 4000 Li\u00e8ge, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Amandine","family":"Tytgat","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, GIGA Institute, University of Li\u00e8ge, 4000 Li\u00e8ge, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Fabrice","family":"Bureau","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, GIGA Institute, University of Li\u00e8ge, 4000 Li\u00e8ge, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Laurent","family":"Gillet","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Immunology-Vaccinology Laboratory, Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, FARAH, University of Li\u00e8ge, 4000 Li\u00e8ge, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2040-1309","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Yasmine","family":"Belhadj","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Li\u00e8ge University Hospital, 4000 Li\u00e8ge, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Sebastien","family":"Bontems","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Microbiology, University of Li\u00e8ge, 4000 Li\u00e8ge, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9025-6493","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marie-Pierre","family":"Hayette","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Microbiology, University of Li\u00e8ge, 4000 Li\u00e8ge, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Rapha\u00ebl","family":"Schils","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Li\u00e8ge University Hospital, 4000 Li\u00e8ge, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Souad","family":"Rahmouni","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Unit of Animal Genomics, GIGA Institute, University of Li\u00e8ge, 4000 Li\u00e8ge, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9002-5783","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marie","family":"Ernst","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Biostatistics and Medico-Economic Information Department, University Hospital of Liege, 4000 Liege, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Michel","family":"Moutschen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Li\u00e8ge University Hospital, 4000 Li\u00e8ge, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8192-1351","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gilles","family":"Darcis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Infectious Diseases, Li\u00e8ge University Hospital, 4000 Li\u00e8ge, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,10,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2225","DOI":"10.1093\/cid\/ciaa1654","article-title":"COVID-19-Lessons Learned and Questions Remaining","volume":"72","author":"Fang","year":"2021","journal-title":"Clin. 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