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Review
. 2021 Jan;413(1):35-48.
doi: 10.1007/s00216-020-02889-x. Epub 2020 Sep 18.

Review of analytical performance of COVID-19 detection methods

Basant Giri  1 , Shishir Pandey  1 , Retina Shrestha  1 , Krisha Pokharel  1 , Frances S Ligler  2 , Bhanu B Neupane  1   3
Affiliations
Review

Review of analytical performance of COVID-19 detection methods

Basant Giri et al. Anal Bioanal Chem. 2021 Jan.

Abstract

In the recent SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, public health experts have emphasized testing, tracking infected people, and tracing their contacts as an effective strategy to reduce the spread of the virus. Several diagnostic methods are reported for detecting the coronavirus in clinical, research, and public health laboratories. Some tests detect the infection directly by detecting the viral RNA and other tests detect the infection indirectly by detecting the host antibodies. A diagnostic test during the pandemic should help make an appropriate clinical decision in a short period of time. Recently reported diagnostic methods for SARS-CoV-2 have varying throughput, batching capacity, requirement of infrastructure setting, analytical performance, and turnaround times ranging from a few minutes to several hours. These factors should be considered while selecting a reliable and rapid diagnostic method to help make an appropriate decision and prompt public health interventions. This paper reviews recent SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic methods published in journals and reports released by regulatory agencies. We compared the analytical efficiency including limit of detection, sensitivity, specificity, and throughput. In addition, we also looked into ease of use, affordability, and availability of accessories. Finally, we discuss the limitations of the methods and provide our perspectives on priorities for future test development.

Keywords: COVID-19; Coronavirus; Disease diagnosis; Immunoassays; RT-PCR; SARS-CoV-2.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Major diagnostic methods reported for the detection of SARS-CoV-2
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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