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. 2021 Dec 22;9(3):e0088421.
doi: 10.1128/Spectrum.00884-21. Epub 2021 Nov 24.

Comparison of the Performance of the PanBio COVID-19 Antigen Test in SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 (Alpha) Variants versus non-B.1.1.7 Variants

M L van Ogtrop  1 , T J W van de Laar  1   2 , D Eggink  3 , J W Vanhommerig  4 , W A van der Reijden  1   5
Affiliations

Comparison of the Performance of the PanBio COVID-19 Antigen Test in SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 (Alpha) Variants versus non-B.1.1.7 Variants

M L van Ogtrop et al. Microbiol Spectr. .

Abstract

This study evaluates the performance of the PanBio COVID-19 antigen (Ag) test as part of a hospital infection control policy. Hospital staff was encouraged to get tested for COVID-19 when presenting with SARS-CoV-2-related symptoms. In a period of approximately 5 months, a steady decline in the performance of the Ag test was noted, epidemiologically coinciding with the rise of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 (alpha) variant of concern (VOC) in the Netherlands. This led to the hypothesis that the diagnostic performance of the PanBio COVID-19 Ag test was influenced by the infecting viral variant. The results show a significantly lower sensitivity of the PanBio COVID-19 Ag test in persons infected with the B.1.1.7 (alpha) variant of SARS-CoV-2 in comparison with that in persons infected with non-B.1.1.7 variants, also after adjustment for viral load. IMPORTANCE Antigen tests for COVID-19 are widely used for rapid identification of COVID-19 cases, for example, for access to schools, festivals, and travel. There are several FDA- and CE-cleared tests on the market. Their performance has been evaluated mainly on the basis of infections by the classical variant of the causing virus, SARS-CoV-2. This paper provides evidence that the performance of one of the most widely used antigen tests detects significantly fewer cases of COVID-19 by the alpha variant than by the classical variants of SARS-CoV-2. This means that the role of antigen tests needs to be reevaluated in regions where other variants of SARS-CoV-2 predominate.

Keywords: B.1.1.7 variant; COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; antigen; diagnostics.

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Conflict of interest statement

We declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIG 1
FIG 1
Distribution of Cp values in the non-B.1.1.7 (WT) and B.1.1.7 variants (alpha) and the antigen-positive (Ag-pos) and antigen-negative (Ag-neg) samples.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Supplementary concepts