What do you need to prepare for nucleic acid testing?

Recently, many people are concerned about the problem of nucleic acid detection. Some people feel that they will be "poked in the throat" at the thought of nucleic acid testing. Is it really so painful? What preparations need to be made before the test? To this end, experts from relevant departments of the First People's Hospital and the Second People's Hospital of our city gave scientific answers.

It is understood that nucleic acid detection is to detect the characteristic sequence of virus genetic material to determine whether it is COVID-19 infection. That is to say, nucleic acid can be detected early in patients infected with COVID-19, and asymptomatic infected people can be found out. Compared with nucleic acid detection, antibody detection is because the virus will stimulate the human body to produce IgM or IgG after entering the human body for a period of time. By detecting the antibodies in serum, it can be indirectly proved that people are infected with novel coronavirus. Only when the human immune system senses the virus "antigen" and produces an immune response will antibodies be produced, so when antibodies can be found, they may have been infected for some time.

According to reports, when doing nucleic acid testing, there is a very important project, that is, doing throat swabs, which are divided into nasopharyngeal swabs and oropharyngeal swabs. At present, most hospitals use oropharyngeal swabs for sampling, because it is convenient and less painful. When you do an oropharyngeal swab, just look up slightly and open your mouth with an "ah". When you are ready, the nurse will start sampling. Gently scrape the sides of your jaw arch, tonsils and posterior pharyngeal wall with a cotton swab.

In order to avoid "false negative" in nucleic acid detection and reduce the possibility of cross infection in hospital, it is suggested to make the following preparations: to avoid vomiting, do not eat for 2 hours before sampling; To avoid affecting the test results, do not smoke, drink or chew gum 30 minutes before sampling; In order to reduce the risk of cross-infection in the hospital, all people who come to the hospital for testing need to wear masks and prepare a spare mask; All personnel waiting for testing must keep a distance of more than 1 meter to avoid talking; When sampling and taking reports, you need to bring the patient's ID card and receipt.