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Clinical Trial
. 2021 Mar 15;52(2):e46-e49.
doi: 10.1093/labmed/lmaa104.

Potential Use of Antigen-Based Rapid Test for SARS-CoV-2 in Respiratory Specimens in Low-Resource Settings in Egypt for Symptomatic Patients and High-Risk Contacts

Abeer Mohamed Abdelrazik  1 , Shahira Morsy Elshafie  1 , Hossam M Abdelaziz  1
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Potential Use of Antigen-Based Rapid Test for SARS-CoV-2 in Respiratory Specimens in Low-Resource Settings in Egypt for Symptomatic Patients and High-Risk Contacts

Abeer Mohamed Abdelrazik et al. Lab Med. .

Abstract

Objective: Because of the rapidly emerging SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and its wide public health challenges, rapid diagnosis is essential to decrease the spread. Antigen-based rapid detection tests are available; however, insufficient data about their performance are available.

Methods: The lateral-flow immunochromatographic BIOCREDIT COVID-19 antigen test was evaluated using nasopharyngeal swabs in a viral transport medium from patients with confirmed infection, contacts, and exposed healthcare professionals at Fayoum University Hospital in Egypt. Test performance was determined in comparison to the SARS-CoV-2 real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test.

Results: Three hundred ten specimens from 3 categories-patients with confirmed diagnoses of COVID-19, contacts, and exposed healthcare professionals-were included; 188 specimens were RT-PCR-positive, from which 81 were detected by rapid antigen test. Overall sensitivity was 43.1%. Sensitivity was significantly higher in specimens with high viral loads.

Conclusion: Poor sensitivity of the BIOCREDIT COVID-19 test does not permit its use for diagnosis, and it can only be used in conjunction with RT-PCR for screening.

Keywords: COVID-19; RT-PCR; SARS-CoV-2; antigen-based rapid test.

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