Design of 3D-Printed Nasopharyngeal Swabs for Children is Enabled by Radiologic Imaging

3D printed fluidic swab for COVID-19 testing with improved diagnostic yield and user comfort

The current standard method of diagnosing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) involves uncomfortable and invasive nasopharyngeal (NP) sampling using cotton swabs (CS), which can be unsuitable for self-testing. Although mid-turbinate sampling is an alternative, it has a lower diagnostic yield than NP sampling. Nasal wash (NW) has a similar diagnostic yield to NP sampling, but is cumbersome to perform. In this study, we introduce a 3D printed fluidic swab (3DPFS) that enables easy NW sampling for COVID-19 testing with improved diagnostic yield. The 3DPFS comprises a swab head, microchannel, and socket that can be connected to a syringe containing 250 µL of NW solution. The 3DPFS efficiently collects nasal fluid from the surface of the nasal cavity, resulting in higher sensitivity than CS for the detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This was confirmed by both reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and lateral flow assays (LFA) in virus-spiked nasal samples and clinical samples. Additionally, users reported greater comfort when using the 3DPFS compared to CS. These findings suggest that the 3DPFS can improve the performance of COVID-19 testing by facilitating efficient and less painful nasal sample collection.

Excellent Characteristics of Environmentally Friendly 3D-Printed Nasopharyngeal Swabs for Medical Sample Collection

3D-printed nasopharyngeal swabs for medical sample collection have been manufactured via additive manufacturing (AM), evaluated, and characterized in the present study. A multi-part component of nasopharyngeal swabs was proposed, in which the swab and handle were manufactured separately to reach sustainable production and environmentally friendly products. The swab was investigated using tensile, flexural, surface roughness, dimensional accuracy, and sample collection testing. The influence of printing parameters and post-curing time treatment on the mechanical properties, surface roughness, and dimensional accuracy of 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swabs were also evaluated. The result showed that 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swab shows outstanding tensile strength compared to the commercial flock nasopharyngeal swab. Moreover, the swab neck flexibility test showed that both PLA and dental non-castable 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swabs were able to bend 180°. Subsequently, the surface roughness of 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swab was identic with the commercial flock nasopharyngeal swab. The proposed 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swab design could carry an artificial mucus sample of 141.6 mg at a viscosity of 9455.4 mPa.s. The cost to fabricate a 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swab was estimated at USD0.01-0.02 per swab. 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swab shows potential as a feasible option, greener, less medical waste, and more sustainable.

Mohan D, Karganroudi SS. The Unprecedented Role of 3D Printing Technology in Fighting the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Comprehensive Review

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) rapidly spread to over 180 countries and abruptly disrupted production rates and supply chains worldwide. Since then, 3D printing, also recognized as additive manufacturing (AM) and known to be a novel technique that uses layer-by-layer deposition of material to produce intricate 3D geometry, has been engaged in reducing the distress caused by the outbreak. During the early stages of this pandemic, shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), including facemasks, shields, respirators, and other medical gear, were significantly answered by remotely 3D printing them. Amidst the growing testing requirements, 3D printing emerged as a potential and fast solution as a manufacturing process to meet production needs due to its flexibility, reliability, and rapid response capabilities. In the recent past, some other medical applications that have gained prominence in the scientific community include 3D-printed ventilator splitters, device components, and patient-specific products. Regarding non-medical applications, researchers have successfully developed contact-free devices to address the sanitary crisis in public places. This work aims to systematically review the applications of 3D printing or AM techniques that have been involved in producing various critical products essential to limit this deadly pandemic's progression.

On-Site, On-Demand 3D-Printed Nasopharyngeal Swabs to Improve the Access of Coronavirus Disease-19 Testing

Diagnostic testing that facilitates containment, surveillance, and treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), or future respiratory viruses, depends on a sample collection device that efficiently collects nasopharyngeal tissue and that can be manufactured on site when an outbreak or public health emergency is declared by a government. Here two novel stereolithography-based three-dimensional (3D)-printed nasopharyngeal swabs are reported which are made using a biocompatible and sterilizable photoresist. Such swabs are readily manufactured on-site and on-demand to ensure availability, if supply chain shortages emerge. Additionally, the 3D-printed swabs easily adapt to current workflow and testing procedures in hospital clinical laboratories to allow for effortless scaling up of test kits. Finally, the 3D-printed nasopharyngeal swabs demonstrate concordant SARS-CoV-2 testing results between the 3D-printed swabs and the COPAN commercial swabs, and enable detection of SARS-CoV-2 in clinical samples obtained from autopsies.

Screening pediatric surgical patients during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

SARS-CoV-2 has profoundly affected the way healthcare is delivered and has created significant strain on medical facilities globally. As a result, hospitals have had to continuously adapt in order to provide optimal patient care while minimizing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, particularly in the surgical setting. Texas Children's Hospital developed a set of protocols for surgical screening and clearance of patients in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. These screening protocols were designed to mitigate the risk of exposing patients and healthcare providers to SARS-CoV-2 and have evolved significantly as a result of the emerging changes in medicine, technology, and governmental regulations. In this article, we share the reasoning behind the development, implementation, and successive modification of our institutional screening protocols.

Performance of three-dimensional printed nasopharyngeal swabs for COVID-19 testing

ABSTRACT

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the US faced nationwide shortages of nasopharyngeal swabs due to both overwhelmed supply chains and an increase in demand. To address this shortfall, multiple 3D printed swabs were ultimately produced and sold for COVID-19 testing. In this work, we present a framework for mechanical and functional bench-testing of nasopharyngeal swabs using standard and widely available material testing equipment. Using this framework, we offer a comprehensive, quantitative comparison of the 3D printed swabs to benchmark their performance against traditional flocked swabs. The test protocols were designed to emulate the clinical use of the nasopharyngeal swabs and to evaluate potential failure modes. Overall, the 3D printed swabs performed comparably to, or outperformed, the traditional swabs in all mechanical tests. While traditional swabs outperformed some of the new 3D printed swabs in terms of sample uptake and retention, similar amounts of RNA were recovered from both 3D printed and traditional swabs.

Innovative design of 3D-printed nasopharyngeal pediatric swab for COVID-19 detection

3-dimensional (3D) printing technology provides a solution to meet the high demand for producing adult nasal swabs. A smaller, more flexible nasopharyngeal swab needs to be developed for children and infants suspected of having coronavirus. The information shared here presents a novel 3D-printed pediatric swab for the purpose of collecting upper respiratory clinical specimens.

3D printing in the battle against COVID-19

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) that is SARS-CoV-2, previously called 2019-nCoV, is a kind of human infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Based on the prompt increase of human infection rate, COVID-19 outbreak was distinguished as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). By 2020, COVID-19 becomes a major health problem all around the world. Due to the battle against COVID-19, there are some adversities that are encountered with. The most significant difficulty is the lack of equipment for the COVID-19 battle. Lately, there is not sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) for hospital workers on the front lines in this terrifying time. All around the world, hospitals are overwhelmed by the volume of patients and the lack of personal protective equipment including face masks, gloves, eye protection and clothing. In addition, the lack of nasal swabs, which are necessary components, that are used for testing is another issue that is being faced. There are a small number of respirators, which are emergency devices that help patients breathe for a short period of time. To overcome the limited number of equipment available, the foremost solution can be 3D printing that allows three-dimensional renderings to be realized as physical objects with the use of a printer and that revolutionized prototyping. Low-cost desktop 3D printers allow economical 3D models and guides but have less quality approvals. 3D printing is already well integrated into the process of COVID-19 battle by manufacturing the equipment that are convenient. The goals of this review are to explore the techniques of 3D printing for the equipment that are used for COVID-19 battle and evaluate the materials that are used for manufacturing and the manufactured equipment. Lastly, the advantages and disadvantages of 3D printing are figured out.

3D printing of nasopharyngeal swabs for COVID-19 diagnose: Past and current trends

The current technological advancements in emerging 3D printing technologies are indeed propitious. To date, ground-breaking 3D printing technologies are used in automobile, aerospace, clothing, pharma, and biomedical industries by creating pre-requisite engineered and tailored end-user products reaching standard sets. 3D printing is also becoming a crucial technology in support of enhanced health care and general emergency response since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. As the world is facing a significant lack of medicinal supplies, manufactures are struggling to fulfill demands due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The decline in the diagnostic testing kits supply chained to increased interest in 3D printed Nasopharyngeal (NP) swabs. This article has reviewed and studied the sensitivity of the NP swabs and various NP swab designs. The process of different 3D printing technologies that are employed to address the swab shortages during COVID-19 is explained in detail. The paper ends with the conclusions drawn from the literature review.