Rapid Salivary Test to Detect SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19)

The present Diagnostic Accuracy study aims at experimentally validating the use of a rapid salivary test to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection in both symptomatic and asymptomatic individuals as a preliminary approach to a mass screening program. The study is based on a consecutive recruitment of both patients showing symptoms probably associated with COVID-19 (i.e., cough, dyspnea, fever) and asymptomatic patients with a low risk phenotype. The expected number of recruited individuals is 100. The experimental test is a prototype of salivary test based on the Lateral Flow Immunoassay technique and is able to detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 in saliva, especially the Spike protein (S). The comparison is represented by the nasopharyngeal swab, the gold standard of COVID-19 diagnosis. Patients will undergo both salivary immunoassay and nasopharyngeal swab, thus the outcome assessors are blinded, since the results of the rRT-PCR analysis require at least 6 hours before being available. The main outcomes are sensibility and specificity of the rapid salivary test, when compared with the gold standard (nasopharyngeal swab).