Printable Test Catalog - OU Medicine

[VPRSV] RSV PCR
SPECIMEN REQUIRED:
Nasopharyngeal wash+NP instructions:
1. Draw up 1-2 mL of sterile saline into a 3-5 mL syringe.
2. Remove the needle from the syringe and put on a butterfly
with a large tubing. Cut the tubing to a length of 2-3".
3. Place the tubing in the nasopharyngeal passage. Inject the
saline rapidly and draw back rapidly.
4. Inject saline and nasal material into the viral transport
medium. (If viral transport medium is not available, the NP
wash may be added to 1.O mL of trypticase soy broth or
sterile saline.)
5. After or before doing the wash, use a Dacron NP swab to do a
good epithelial cell scraping of the nasopharyngeal area.
Place and cut or break the swab into the same vial as the
wash. (Immunofluorescent testing is done on the epithelial
cells. The combination of both the wash and nasopharyngeal
scraping are essential to obtain enough cells to perform
the test.)
Alternate NP collection instructions:
1. Insert a type 1 (NP) dacron tipped, aluminum-shafted swab
into nasopharyngeal passage for 1 minute.
2. Immediately following the removal of the swab roll the
swab onto the center of a glass slide. Keep the area
confined to the size of a dime. Do not leave any large
clumps of mucous; spread the specimen out evenly over the
dime size area. (This will make a maximum of 2 slides).
Send to the lab immediately in glass slide holders
3. Repeat step 1 and cut or break the swab into viral transport
medium or have the patient gargle 3 mL of sterile saline for
10 seconds; expell the gargle into a sterile container.
This is for a viral culture if the slide collection is poor
or if the FA is negative. The culture is not performed if
the FA is positive.
The aspirate can be put in viral transport medium and used for
culture backup. Culture backup for adults requires a throat swab
or gargle placed in viral transport medium. If FA is positive
the culture is not performed. Select any 2 viruses to be tested
for: RSV, Parainfluenza virus, Influenza A/B, Adenovirus.
Influenza A and B can be tested for separately or pooled.
Draw up 1-2 mL sterile saline into a 3-5 mL syringe. Attach 2
inches of 18-20 guage tubing to syringe tip. Insert tube end
into nostril. Quickly instill saline into nostril. Aspirate the
recoverable nasal specimen. Inject nasal specimen from syringe
into viral transport media tube. Refrigerate following
collection and during transport.
NP swab: Collect with rayon or Dacron wire swab; place swab into
viral transport media tube. Refrigerate following collection
and during transport.
TUBE OR CONTAINER: Viral transport media