You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Brief communication
Use of exhaled breath condensate (EBC) in the diagnosis of SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19)
  1. Daniel J Ryan1,2,
  2. Sinead Toomey1,
  3. Stephen F Madden3,
  4. Michelle Casey2,
  5. Oscar S Breathnach4,
  6. Patrick G Morris4,
  7. Liam Grogan4,
  8. Peter Branagan2,
  9. Richard W Costello2,
  10. Eoghan De Barra5,
  11. Killian Hurley2,
  12. Cedric Gunaratnam2,
  13. Noel G McElvaney2,
  14. Michael Emmet OBrien2,
  15. Imran Sulaiman2,
  16. Ross K Morgan2,
  17. Bryan T Hennessy1,4
  1. 1 Department of Molecular Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
  2. 2 Department of Respiratory Medicine, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
  3. 3 Data Science Centre, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
  4. 4 Department of Oncology, Beaumont Hospital, Dublin, Ireland
  5. 5 Department of International Health and Tropical Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland
  1. Correspondence to Dr Daniel J Ryan, Department of Molecular Medicine, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, Dublin, Ireland; danennis100{at}gmail.com

Abstract

False negatives from nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) using reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) in SARS-CoV-2 are high. Exhaled breath condensate (EBC) contains lower respiratory droplets that may improve detection. We performed EBC RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 genes (E, S, N, ORF1ab) on NPS-positive (n=16) and NPS-negative/clinically positive COVID-19 patients (n=15) using two commercial assays. EBC detected SARS-CoV-2 in 93.5% (29/31) using the four genes. Pre-SARS-CoV-2 era controls (n=14) were negative. EBC was positive in NPS negative/clinically positive patients in 66.6% (10/15) using the identical E and S (E/S) gene assay used for NPS, 73.3% (11/15) using the N/ORF1ab assay and 14/15 (93.3%) combined.

  • exhaled airway markers
  • respiratory infection
  • viral infection

This article is made freely available for use in accordance with BMJ’s website terms and conditions for the duration of the covid-19 pandemic or until otherwise determined by BMJ. You may use, download and print the article for any lawful, non-commercial purpose (including text and data mining) provided that all copyright notices and trade marks are retained.

https://bmj.com/coronavirus/usage

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2020-215705

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • DJR and ST are joint first authors.

    • RKM and BTH are joint senior authors.

    • Contributors DR and ST: joint first authors responsible for drafting, conception, design, acquisition, analysis and interpretation. SM: data analysis and interpretation. MC, OB, PGM and LG: data acquisition and analysis. EDB, PB, RWC, KH, CG, NGM, MEO and IS: data acquisition and analysis. RM and BH: joint senior authors responsible for conception, design and drafting of the manuscript for important intellectual content.

    • Funding This study was funded by a Science Foundation Ireland COVID Rapid Response Call grant (20/COV/0109) and the North East Cancer Research and Education Trust (NECRET: Grant no. 1696).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent for publication Not required.

    • Ethics approval Beaumont Hospital Ethics (Medical Research) Committee, Dublin, Ireland (March 31st 2020) REC REF: 20/39.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.