TY - JOUR
T1 - Stability studies on dry swabs and wet mailed swabs for detection of chlamydia trachomatis and neisseria gonorrhoeae in aptima assays
AU - Moncada, Jeanne
AU - Clark, Carey B.
AU - Holden, Jeffrey
AU - Hook, Edward W.
AU - Gaydos, Charlotte A.
AU - Schachter, Julius
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was partially supported by the donation of test kits by Hologic, Inc., and NIH grant STI CTG A100420.
Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright 2017 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2017/3
Y1 - 2017/3
N2 - The Aptima Combo 2 (AC2) and Aptima CT (ACT) (Hologic Inc., San Diego, CA) are nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) that detect Chlamydia trachomatis. AC2 also detects Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Storage and temperature conditions may impact the utility of NAATs in some settings and screening programs. We evaluated specimen stability for use beyond the Aptima package insert specifications for temperature and duration of storage (between 2°C and 30°C and 60 days, respectively) in two studies: (i) dry C. trachomatis-seeded swabs were used with ACT after storage at 4°C, 23°C, or 36°C for up to 84 days and (ii) swabs seeded with C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae and then placed in transport medium were tested with AC2, after being mailed via the U.S. Postal Service to three different sites. Prolonged storage of samples had no effect, and samples stored at 4°C, 23°C, and 36°C for up to 84 days yielded comparable ACT positivities, although there was a drop in signal intensity for virtually all specimens under all storage/shipping conditions after day 21. In the mailing study, 80%, 52% and 29% of seeded swabs were exposed to temperatures of >30°C during three rounds in transit, and 2% reached temperatures of >40°C. No evidence of signal degradation in the AC2 assay for detection of C. trachomatis or N. gonorrhoeae was observed, although some mailed swabs took more than 5 weeks to reach the laboratory site. These two studies support the potential use of swabs at temperatures above 36°C and storage beyond 60 days and provide confidence regarding this commercially available NAAT for testing of specimens after mailing.
AB - The Aptima Combo 2 (AC2) and Aptima CT (ACT) (Hologic Inc., San Diego, CA) are nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) that detect Chlamydia trachomatis. AC2 also detects Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Storage and temperature conditions may impact the utility of NAATs in some settings and screening programs. We evaluated specimen stability for use beyond the Aptima package insert specifications for temperature and duration of storage (between 2°C and 30°C and 60 days, respectively) in two studies: (i) dry C. trachomatis-seeded swabs were used with ACT after storage at 4°C, 23°C, or 36°C for up to 84 days and (ii) swabs seeded with C. trachomatis and N. gonorrhoeae and then placed in transport medium were tested with AC2, after being mailed via the U.S. Postal Service to three different sites. Prolonged storage of samples had no effect, and samples stored at 4°C, 23°C, and 36°C for up to 84 days yielded comparable ACT positivities, although there was a drop in signal intensity for virtually all specimens under all storage/shipping conditions after day 21. In the mailing study, 80%, 52% and 29% of seeded swabs were exposed to temperatures of >30°C during three rounds in transit, and 2% reached temperatures of >40°C. No evidence of signal degradation in the AC2 assay for detection of C. trachomatis or N. gonorrhoeae was observed, although some mailed swabs took more than 5 weeks to reach the laboratory site. These two studies support the potential use of swabs at temperatures above 36°C and storage beyond 60 days and provide confidence regarding this commercially available NAAT for testing of specimens after mailing.
KW - Chlamydia trachomatis
KW - Detection
KW - Neisseria gonorrhoeae
KW - Nucleic acid amplification test
KW - Stability
KW - Swabs
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U2 - 10.1128/JCM.02235-16
DO - 10.1128/JCM.02235-16
M3 - Article
C2 - 28077695
AN - SCOPUS:85014337725
SN - 0095-1137
VL - 55
SP - 971
EP - 977
JO - Journal of clinical microbiology
JF - Journal of clinical microbiology
IS - 3
ER -