How to Use nasopharyngeal in a Sentence

nasopharyngeal

adjective
  • The swabs in short supply, called nasopharyngeal swabs, are long and have to go very far up a patient’s nose.
    Mary Kilpatrick, cleveland, 16 Apr. 2020
  • Those tests are typical nasal swabs — not the 6-inch nasopharyngeal swabs that were used around the world in the early days of the pandemic.
    Amie Just | Staff Writer, NOLA.com, 23 Oct. 2020
  • Tests using a nasopharyngeal swab—the one that goes deep into your nose to the back of your throat—are still considered the gold standard.
    Allison Duncan, Health.com, 7 Oct. 2020
  • One study compared tests on saliva samples with those taken with nasopharyngeal swabs and found the results were the same 94 to 99% of the time, Ehresmann said.
    Christopher Snowbeck, Star Tribune, 26 Aug. 2020
  • Researchers said the tests will be less invasive than the nasopharyngeal swab required by the current method.
    Leada Gore | Lgore@al.com, al, 17 Aug. 2020
  • That May she was diagnosed with Stage 4 nasopharyngeal cancer, a rare type of head and neck cancer.
    Mike Nolan, Daily Southtown, 28 Apr. 2018
  • DuFort put a long swab, known as a nasopharyngeal swab, deep into Cuomo's nose for about five seconds.
    Eric Levenson, CNN, 17 May 2020
  • Hagfish take in water through their nasopharyngeal duct, which leads to their pharynx and gill pouches.
    Mary Bates, WIRED, 3 Nov. 2014
  • Covid tests typically use a nasal swab, or what’s known as a nasopharyngeal swab when a sample is taken from deep inside the nose.
    Ben Zimmer, WSJ, 13 Jan. 2022
  • The nasopharyngeal swab is the most effective way to obtain a sample, though also the most unpleasant.
    Nathan Baird, cleveland, 26 June 2020
  • Users swab the inside of their nostrils (not as far into the nasal cavity as the deeper nasopharyngeal swabs), then swirl it in a vial that is then placed in the test kit, the FDA press release explains.
    Sarah Jacoby, SELF, 18 Nov. 2020
  • The current test requires sticking a long cotton swab deep into the nasal cavity to reach what is known as the nasopharyngeal region.
    Zachary Halaschak, Washington Examiner, 18 Mar. 2020
  • In the weeks since, manufacturers have been forced to play a frantic game of catchup that’s now being further stymied by a shortage of nasopharyngeal swabs, McAdam says.
    Katherine J. Wu, Smithsonian Magazine, 7 Apr. 2020
  • The second way, called a nasopharyngeal swab, requires a professional to probe more deeply into the nasal cavity to get the sample.
    Sarah Krouse, WSJ, 3 Sep. 2020
  • Like the original tests, the test is administered by giving the patient a nasopharyngeal swab.
    Terry Demio, Cincinnati.com, 10 Apr. 2020
  • Before the pandemic, the nasopharyngeal swab was used for detection of many other pathogens.
    Tanya Lewis, Scientific American, 20 Aug. 2020
  • Both tests are administered with nasopharyngeal swabs that touch the back of the nose, because that’s where the highest viral concentrations are found.
    Sabrina Eaton, cleveland, 7 Aug. 2020
  • What the testing kits look like Each testing kit has a sterile container and a nasopharyngeal swab in a plastic specimen bag.
    Jennifer Borresen, USA Today, 1 Apr. 2020
  • The tests also missed 48% of cases when they were not conducted with nasopharyngeal swabs that penetrate deeply into the nasal passages.
    Author: Aaron C. Davis, Shawn Boburg, Josh Dawsey, Anchorage Daily News, 3 Oct. 2020
  • So did testing of two patients’ nasopharyngeal swabs, one patient’s blood, and one patient’s saliva.
    Bruce Y. Lee, Forbes, 16 June 2022
  • The state health department showed up in full protective gear, and gave each person two swabs: a back of throat swab, and the nasopharyngeal swab that made everyone uncomfortable.
    Eric Walden, The Salt Lake Tribune, 11 Mar. 2021
  • In the Yale study, the saliva tests actually detected the virus more frequently — 81% of the tests came back positive in the first five days of infections, compared to 71% of nasopharyngeal tests.
    Fortune, 5 Sep. 2020
  • Cushion’s email asks for nine items, including sterile nasopharyngeal swabs that collect specimens from the top of a patient’s throat behind the nose.
    Anne Saker, Cincinnati.com, 19 Mar. 2020
  • Technically called a nasopharyngeal airway, this soft tube can be placed through the nose to help a casualty breathe better.
    The Editors, Outdoor Life, 20 Feb. 2020
  • Some schools are using less-invasive techniques than the testing that relies on long nasopharyngeal swabs.
    Washington Post, 20 Sep. 2020
  • Unlike the current nasopharyngeal swab tests that can detect viral RNA with a swab plunged deep into your nasal cavities, the new test looks for viral antigens, proteins on the surface of the virus.
    Sarah Jacoby, SELF, 27 Aug. 2020
  • Cornell chose a front-of-the-nose swab rather than the more invasive nasopharyngeal version, said Gary Koretzky, a professor of medicine and vice provost, to increase student compliance.
    Washington Post, 10 Dec. 2020
  • That new test involves putting a person’s nasopharyngeal swab in a tube containing chemicals that detect the virus’s surface proteins.
    Sarah Wild, Scientific American, 16 June 2020
  • Anguilla accepts only one type of pre-arrival Covid-19 test, which everyone in your party will need to have: the rt-PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test from a nasopharyngeal swab.
    Klara Glowczewska, Town & Country, 3 Mar. 2021
  • Now the newer study contends that inactivating the virus in the mouth’s saliva and mucous membranes could help reduce infection in the adjoining nasopharyngeal area, too.
    Abdullah Iqbal, Scientific American, 24 Feb. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'nasopharyngeal.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: