{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T00:52:27Z","timestamp":1760230347062,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":49,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,22]],"date-time":"2022-07-22T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1658448000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Vision"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Since 2020, the COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease 2019) has quickly become a worldwide health problem. Ophthalmologists must deal with symptoms as well. For the positive detection in the conjunctival sac swab in COVID-19 patients hospitalized in Slovakia during March 2021 in four hospital centers, we used a test based on a polymerase chain reaction (PCR). In a group of 484 patients, 264 males (55%) and 220 females (45%) with clinical symptoms were identified with COVID-19 as a clinical diagnosis. The PCR test swab results from the conjunctival sac taken on the same day were positive in 58 patients (12%), 31 males (with a mean age of 74.6 \u00b1 13.59 years) and 27 females (with a mean age of 70.63 \u00b1 14.17 years); negative in 417 patients (86%); and 9 patients (2%) had an unclear result. The cycle threshold values comparing the nasopharynx and conjunctiva were also different in the group of all patients divided by age and gender. In COVID-19 patients the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) was detectable using PCR test in the nasopharynx but also in the conjunctival sac swab, where the positivity rate was only 12%.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/vision6030046","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,25]],"date-time":"2022-07-25T04:52:47Z","timestamp":1658724767000},"page":"46","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Conjunctival Swab Findings in 484 COVID-19 Patients in Four Hospital Centers in Slovakia"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"6","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5689-892X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alena","family":"Furdova","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, 826 01 Bratislava, Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2972-223X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Pavol","family":"Vesely","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, 826 01 Bratislava, Slovakia"},{"name":"VESELY Eye Clinic, 826 00 Bratislava, Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4599-1971","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Michal","family":"Trnka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Medical Physics, Biophysics, Informatics and Telemedicine, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, 821 01 Bratislava, Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Elena","family":"Novakova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Jessenius Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, 036 01 Martin, Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Michal","family":"Stubna","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty Hospital, 010 01 Zilina, Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4287-223X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Robert","family":"Furda","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Management, Comenius University, 820 05 Bratislava, Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Lubica","family":"Branikova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty Hospital, 940 62 Nove Zamky, Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zuzana","family":"Pridavkova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Uvea Mediklinik, 036 00 Martin, Slovakia"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,22]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"71","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijsu.2020.02.034","article-title":"World Health Organization Declares Global Emergency: A Review of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)","volume":"76","author":"Sohrabi","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int. 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