Fig 1.
Comparison of sampling into VTM vs. NSLB.
(a) Ct values of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in samples collected from patients into VTM (blue), linked by black lines to their NSLB matching samples from the same patients (red). The asterisk denotes a statistically significant advantage for NSLB. A grey zone adjacent to the axes marks results below the limit of detection. (b) Ct values of matched samples from the same patient in VTM (x-axis) vs. NSLB (y-axis). The diagonal black line represents theoretical equal performance of VTM and NSLB. (c) Ct difference (VTM-NSLB) for each sample pair from the same patient. The black line at y = 0 represents theoretical equal performance of VTM and NSLB. The red line at y = 1.5 represents equal performance of VTM and NSLB when controlling for VTM dilution. The magenta line shows the mean of differences. (d-f) Same as (a-c), but for human RNA.
Fig 2.
Detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA at different times of sample storage.
(a) Ct values at time = 0h vs. time = 24h for 24 hospitalized patients. Blue dots represent VTM samples and red dots represent NSLB samples. Colored lines are linear fits for VTM and NSLB. (b) Same as (a) but for 20 recovering quarantined patients, tested at times 0h and 72h.