Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/xwRgQi2ZIjQ

 

Collecting either a nasal or a saliva sample for CoVid testing in the morning vs. the evening increases the chance of detecting virus by as much as 24%.  Public health officials in Pasadena working with the California Institute of Technology report this finding following their longitudinal study of 29 mildly symptomatic participants from 16 different households.

 

The mean age of the participants was 33 years and the majority were women.  The study was done early in the pandemic and 96% were unvaccinated.  All received sequential PCR testing, both nasal and salivary, that began as early as several days before initial diagnosis and continuing for up to 20 days after.  Most morning sampling was between 7 and 10 am and evening sampling between 8 and 11 pm.

 

Detectable viral loads were higher during the first 6 days of infection and for nasal secretions compared with saliva.  In both fluids, though, viral concentrations were higher in the morning, shown in orange, than in the evening, shown in violet.

 

Looking at the percentage differences between morning and evening collection, the greatest difference between morning and evening collection was highest at 24% for nasal collection between 3 and 6 days after symptom onset and for salivary collection at 21% between 6 and 12 days.

 

The bottom line:  to have the greatest chances of detecting CoVid virus that is present in your body, do the testing first thing in the morning via nasal sampling at least 3 days after mild symptoms have occurred.  Do it earlier if you have more pronounced symptoms.

 

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.02.22271724v1.full.pdf

 

#CoVid #pcrtesting #timeoftesting #nasal #saliva