Throat swab

Throat swab

What is a throat swab?

A throat swab is a swab use to check whether the throat is disease and to sample the throat.

It can be said to be a detection method for understanding the patient’s condition, oral mucosa and pharynx infection.

Because the pharynx is cause by infections caused by external bacterial infestation when the body’s body or local resistance drops,

the doctor needs to collect some cells or viruses for observation when we seek medical treatment, so as to understand the patient’s disease Illness.

Why use throat swabs for nucleic acid testing of new coronavirus?

① The virus sampling tube needs ACE2 receptor:

Because the new coronavirus is mainly spread through droplets and contact, and there are ACE2 receptors in the respiratory tract that are necessary for the new coronavirus invasion,

the respiratory tract of the infected person is the main gateway for the new coronavirus invasion, so the infecte person will Pneumonia occurred.

②, the initial stage of virus infection

In the early stage of virus infection, if blood is use to detect nucleic acid in such suspected cases, false negatives are likely to occur.

because the blood may not have been infecte by the virus in the early stage of virus infection.

③The throat is the place where the virus infestation is highest

With throat swabs, samples from the patient’s nasopharynx, oral cavity and other lower respiratory tract secretions will have the highest probability of being positive,

so throat swab sampling is the best choice for nucleic acid detection.

④Mature nucleic acid detection technology:

Moreover, the current nucleic acid detection technology is considere to be a relatively mature detection method.

It only needs to wipe the throat area for a few seconds to collect the specimen.

How are throat swabs collecte?

Pharyngeal swab collection method

①. First, check personal information with the subject.

②. Then tear off the outer packaging of the sampling swab and take out the sampling swab;

③. Let the subject open his mouth to make an ah sound, expose the throat, and if necessary, press the tongue down with a tongue depressor

(lightly press the front 2/3 of the tongue and the back 1/3);

④. Take out the sterile swab, gently and quickly wipe the bilateral pharyngeal tonsils and posterior pharyngeal wall 3 times,

put the swab head into the preservation solution,

⑤Strongly buckle off the tail of the swab at the mouth of the preservation tube, discard the tail, tighten and cover the tube cap.

(strictly perform aseptic operation).

⑥. Check the patient’s name again after sampling;

⑦. Put the sample in a sealed bag and a special transfer box, and quickly send the sample to the laboratory for inspection.