Performance characteristics of "lollipop" swabs for the diagnosis of infection with SARS-CoV-2
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 23, 2025
Efficient SARS-CoV-2 Quantitative Reverse Transcriptase PCR Saliva Diagnostic Strategy utilizing Open-Source Pipetting Robots
Published on: February 11, 2022
Joseph A McBride1, Gregory DeMuri2, Cassandra Nelson2
1University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Department of Pediatrics Madison, WI, United States; Univeristy of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Medicine, Madison, WI, United States.
Background:
Common biologic samples used to diagnose COVID-19 include nasopharyngeal, nasal, or oropharyngeal swabs, and salivary samples. The performance characteristics of a sucked "lollipop" swab to detect SARS-CoV-2 virus is assessed in four small sub-studies.
Methods:
In each sub-study, a flocked swab was sucked for 20 s and submitted for PCR detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Results:
Across all studies, 52 of 69 (75.4%) COVID-19 positive participants had positive "lollipop" swabs. Twelve of the 17 COVID-19 positive participants with negative "lollipop" swabs had known corresponding cycle threshold values of >37 from their nasal/nasopharyngeal swabs, an indication of low viral load at time of sampling. In a paired samples sub-study, the sensitivity and specificity of the "lollipop" swabs were 100% and 98%.
Conclusions:
"Lollipop" swabs performed satisfactorily especially in individuals with acute infection of COVID-19. "Lollipop" swabs are a simple method of sample collection for detecting SARS-CoV-2 virus and warrants additional consideration.
