Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Sep:283:113919.
doi: 10.1016/j.jviromet.2020.113919. Epub 2020 Jun 15.

Combination of serological total antibody and RT-PCR test for detection of SARS-COV-2 infections

Pei Wang  1
Affiliations

Combination of serological total antibody and RT-PCR test for detection of SARS-COV-2 infections

Pei Wang. J Virol Methods. 2020 Sep.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of serological total antibody tests combined with RT-PCR for detection of SARS-COV-2. We conducted a retrospective study in which 375 patients were enrolled during the outbreak of SARS-COV-2 from 25th January to 16th March 2020. Patients were divided into a COVID-19 group (n = 141) and a control group (n = 234). Serum samples and throat swabs were collected from 375 patients for total antibody testing against SARS-COV-2 and RT-PCR analysis, respectively. The results indicated that diagnostic sensitivity and specificity were 95.7 % and 98.7 %, 92.2 % and 100 % by total antibody tests and RT-PCR, respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of total antibody tests combined with RT-PCR were 98.6 % and 98.7 %. The sensitivity of the combined method was significantly higher than RT-PCR (X2 = 5.16, P < 0.05), and similar to that of total antibody tests (X2 = 1.15, P> 0.05). This study supported the advantage of the combined method for detection of SARS-COV-2 with a high degree of sensitivity and specificity, as a useful tool for accurate diagnosis and timely treatment of suspected patients, epidemiological investigation, as well as monitoring ongoing outbreaks of infections with SARS-COV-2.

Keywords: COVID-19; Chemiluminescence microparticle immunoassay; Real -Time RT-PCR; SARS-COV-2; Serology.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The author declares that there is no conflict of interest related to this article content.

References

    1. Ai T., Yang Z. Correlation of chest CT and RT-PCR testing in Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in China: A Report of 1014 Cases. Radiology. 2020 doi: 10.1148/radiol.2020200642. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Cai X.F., Chen J., Hu J.L., Long Q.X., Deng H.J., Fan K., Liao P., Liu B.Z., Wu G.C., Chen Y.K., Li Z.J., Wang K., Zhang X.L., Tian W.G., Xiang J.L., Du H.X., Wang J., Hu Y., Tang N., Lin Y., Ren J.H., Huang L.Y., Wei J., Gan C.Y., Chen Y.M., Gao Q.Z., Chen A.M., He C.L., Wang D.X., Hu P., Zhou F.C., Huang A.L., Liu P., Wang D.Q. A Peptide-based Magnetic Chemiluminescence Enzyme Immunoassay for serological diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) J. Infect. Dis. 2020;243 doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiaa24. jiaa. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. China National Health Commission . 2020. China National Health Commission, 2020. Diagnosis and Treatment of 2019-nCoV Pneumonia in China.http://www.nhc.gov.cn/yzygj/s7653p/202003/46c9294a7dfe4cef80dc7f5912eb19... (Version 7) In Chinese. Accessed 4 March 2020.
    1. El‐Sherif A., Elbahrawy A., Aboelfotoh A., Abdelkarim M., Saied Mohammad A.G., Abdallah A.M., Mostafa S., Elmestikawy A., Elwassief A., Salah M., Abdelbaseer M.A., Abdelwahab K.S. High false-negative rate of anti-HCV among Egyptian patients on regular hemodialysis. Hemodial. Int. 2012;16:420–427. doi: 10.1111/j.1542-4758.2011.00662.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. GeurtsvanKessel C.H., OKBA N.M.A., Igloi Z., Embregts C.W.E., Laksono B.M., Leijten L., Rahamat-Langendoen J., van den Akker J.P.C., van Kampen J.J.A., van der Eijk A.A., van Binnendijk R.S., Haagmans B., Koopmans M. Towards the next phase: evaluation of serological assays for diagnostics and exposure assessment. medRxiv. 2020;2020 doi: 10.1101/2020.04.23.20077156. 04.23.20077156. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

Substances