Coronavirus disease 2019 is diagnosed based on the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA in nasopharyngeal swabs or saliva using real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Nasopharyngeal swabs should be collected by medical professionals wearing full personal protective equipment (PPE), while saliva can be collected by patients themselves without PPE. However, collecting saliva is difficult for people unable to follow instructions, including infants or unconscious patients. Owing to high viscosity, special attention is required for handling saliva samples in laboratories. To solve these problems, we compared lingual and buccal mucosal swabs (oral swabs) with nasopharyngeal swabs and saliva. Among 13 patients who had SARS-CoV-2 positivity in their nasopharyngeal swabs, 8 and 10 had SARS-CoV-2 positivity in saliva (concordance rate 61.5%) and oral swabs (76.9%), respectively. Among 8 patients with SARS-CoV-2 positivity in saliva, SARS-CoV-2 was also detected in oral swabs in 7 patients (87.5%). We could not obtain saliva samples from 4 patients, but we found perfect concordance of SARS-CoV-2 positivity between nasopharyngeal and oral swabs. Therefore, oral swabs can be used for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA.

2019 年冠状病毒病的诊断基于使用实时定量聚合酶链反应在鼻咽拭子或唾液中检测到严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA。鼻咽拭子应由穿戴全套个人防护装备 (PPE) 的医疗专业人员收集，而唾液可由不带 PPE 的患者自己收集。然而，对于不能听从指示的人，包括婴儿或昏迷的病人来说，收集唾液是很困难的。由于高粘度，在实验室处理唾液样品时需要特别注意。为了解决这些问题，我们将舌和颊粘膜拭子（口腔拭子）与鼻咽拭子和唾液进行了比较。在鼻咽拭子中 SARS-CoV-2 呈阳性的 13 名患者中，8 名和 10 名患者的唾液（一致率为 61.5%）和口腔拭子（76.9%）分别为 SARS-CoV-2 阳性。在唾液中 SARS-CoV-2 阳性的 8 名患者中，7 名患者（87.5%）的口腔拭子中也检测到了 SARS-CoV-2。我们无法获得 4 名患者的唾液样本，但我们发现鼻咽拭子和口腔拭子之间的 SARS-CoV-2 阳性完全一致。因此，口腔拭子可用于检测 SARS-CoV-2 RNA。