Sampling Respiratory Epithelial Cells by Nasal or Nasopharyngeal Flocked Swabs.

ABSTRACT:

Objective: Nasal swab (NS) collection is less invasive than nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) collection, and may facilitate wider surveillance and diagnosis of respiratory viral infections. We studied NS collection of two new swab designs to determine whether NS could sample respiratory epithelial cells as well as NPS.