A cautionary tale of false-negative nasopharyngeal COVID-19 testing

Sean S M Bullis; Jessica W Crothers; Shawn Wayne; Andrew J Hale

doi:10.1016/j.idcr.2020.e00791

A cautionary tale of false-negative nasopharyngeal COVID-19 testing

IDCases. 2020 May 5:20:e00791. doi: 10.1016/j.idcr.2020.e00791. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Sean S M Bullis¹, Jessica W Crothers², Shawn Wayne¹, Andrew J Hale³

Affiliations

¹ University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, VT, United States.
² University of Vermont Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Pathology at Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT United States.
³ University of Vermont Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Larner College of Medicine at the University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, United States.

Abstract

There remains diagnostic uncertainty regarding the sensitivity of reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in detection of SARS-CoV-2 from nasopharyngeal specimens. We present a case where two nasopharyngeal specimens were negative, followed by a positive sputum sample. Serial testing for COVID-19 is indicated in patients with high pretest probability of disease.

Keywords: COVID-19; Nasopharyngeal swab; SARS-CoV-2.

Publication types

Case Reports