PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Eihab Bedawi
AU  - Nikolaos Kanellakis
AU  - Megan Fisher
AU  - Yu Zhao
AU  - Vineeth George
AU  - Anand Sundaralingam
AU  - Xuan Yao
AU  - Aurelia Gondrand
AU  - Mohamed Ellayeh
AU  - Rob Hallifax
AU  - Jeffrey Thiboutot
AU  - Christina Macrosty
AU  - Hans Lee
AU  - Jason Akulian
AU  - Lonny Yarmus
AU  - David Feller-Kopman
AU  - Tao Dong
AU  - John Wrightson
AU  - Najib Rahman
AU  - Nikolaos I. Kanellakis
TI  - Evaluating the presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in the pleural fluid of patients undergoing pleural procedures without symptoms of COVID-19
AID  - 10.1183/13993003.congress-2021.PA3104
DP  - 2021 Sep 05
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - PA3104
VI  - 58
IP  - suppl 65
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/58/suppl_65/PA3104.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/58/suppl_65/PA3104.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2021 Sep 05; 58
AB  - Intro: The pandemic has put a strain on healthcare services and resources. Overall procedure capacity was reduced and cancer diagnostic pathways were disrupted. The procedural urgency associated with symptomatic patients with often undiagnosed malignant pleural effusion means that nasopharyngeal PCR testing to exclude COVID-19 prior to procedures can often be impractical or logistically challengingAim: To assess two hypotheses; that SARS-CoV-2 could not be detected in pleural fluid samples from patients with no clinical features of COVID-19 and that pleural procedures can be conducted safely using a pragmatic infection control strategy in the context of a respiratory pandemicMethods: 24 patients completed a screening questionnaire covering symptoms, travel and contacts. If there was no clinical evidence of COVID-19 infection, the day case intervention could proceed as planned, otherwise a negative nasopharyngeal PCR swab within 48 hours was required. Pleural fluid specimens were prospectively collected for the Oxford Radciffe Biobank study and promptly processed and stored using pre-specified protocols. Viral RNA extraction was performed using the QIAamp UltraSens kit (Qiagen, Germany)Result: All patients had no clinical evidence of COVID-19 infection and therefore none required nasopharyngeal PCR swabs. qPCR assays did not detect SARS-CoV-2 virus in pleural fluid of any of the patients.Conclusion: In the absence of clinical evidence of COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2 is unlikely to be detected in pleural fluid. In the face of an ongoing pandemic, urgent outpatient pleural procedures can be safely continued, so as not to negatively impact the care for non-COVID patientsFootnotesCite this article as: European Respiratory Journal 2021; 58: Suppl. 65, PA3104.This abstract was presented at the 2021 ERS International Congress, in session “Prediction of exacerbations in patients with COPD”.This is an ERS International Congress abstract. No full-text version is available. Further material to accompany this abstract may be available at www.ers-education.org (ERS member access only).