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. 2021 May 14;13(5):908.
doi: 10.3390/v13050908.

Diagnostic Performance of Ag-RDTs and NAAT for SARS-CoV2 Identification in Symptomatic Patients in Catalonia

Luca Basile  1 , Víctor Guadalupe-Fernández  1   2 , Manuel Valdivia Guijarro  1 , Ana Martinez Mateo  1   3 , Pilar Ciruela Navas  1   3 , Jacobo Mendioroz Peña  1   2 , The Epidemiological Surveillance Network Of Catalonia
Affiliations

Diagnostic Performance of Ag-RDTs and NAAT for SARS-CoV2 Identification in Symptomatic Patients in Catalonia

Luca Basile et al. Viruses. .

Abstract

The use of rapid antigenic tests (Ag-RDTs) to diagnose a SARS-CoV-2 infection has become a common practice recently. This study aimed to evaluate performance of Abbott PanbioTM Ag-RDTs with regard to nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) in the early stages of the disease. A cohort of 149,026 infected symptomatic patients, reported in Catalonia from November 2020 to January 2021, was selected. The positivity rates of the two tests were compared with respect to the dates of symptom onset. Ag-RDTs presented positivity rates of 84% in the transmission phases of the disease and 31% in the pre-symptomatic period, compared to 93% and 91%, respectively, for NAAT. The detection of many false negatives with Ag-RDTs during the pre-symptomatic period demonstrates the risk of virus dissemination with this diagnostic technique if used outside the symptomatic period.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2 infection; antigen test; positivity rate; pre-symptomatic; surveillance; symptomatic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Positivity rates of Ag-RTDs and NAAT with respect to symptom onset. Ag-RDTs: rapid antigenic tests; NAAT: nucleic acid amplification testing.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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