SARS‐CoV‐2 antigen detection by saliva; an alternative to nasopharyngeal specimen: A cross‐sectional study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Saliva samples are less invasive and more convenient for patients than naso‐ and/or oropharynx swabs (NOS). However, there is no US Food and Drug Administration‐approved severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) rapid antigen test kit, which can be useful in a prolonged pandemic to reduce transmission by allowing suspected individuals to self‐sampling. We evaluated the performances of High sensitive AQ(+) Rapid SARS‐CoV‐2 Antigen Test (AQ(+) kit) using nasopharyngeal swabs (NPs) and saliva specimens from the same patients in laboratory conditions. METHODS: The real‐time reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (rRT‐PCR) test result was used for screening the inrolled individuals and compared as the gold standard. NP and saliva samples were collected from 100 rRT‐PCR positives and 100 negative individuals and tested with an AQ(+) kit. RESULTS: The AQ(+) kit showed good performances in both NP and saliva samples with an overall accuracy of 98.5% and 94.0%, and sensitivity of 97.0% and 88.0%, respectively. In both cases, specificity was 100%. AQ(+) kit performance with saliva was in the range of the World Health Organization recommended value. CONCLUSION: xOur findings indicate that the saliva specimen can be used as an alternative and less invasive to NPs for quick and reliable SARS‐CoV‐2 antigen detection.