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. 2023 Oct;36(5):516-518.
doi: 10.37201/req/135.2022. Epub 2023 Jun 2.

Role of Hologic® Panther AptimaTM SARS-CoV-2 assay in the detection of SARS-CoV-2: screening or diagnostic technique?

C García-Salguero  1 , L Vallejo, M Martínez-Rodríguez, A Delgado-Iribarren, E Culebras
Affiliations

Role of Hologic® Panther AptimaTM SARS-CoV-2 assay in the detection of SARS-CoV-2: screening or diagnostic technique?

C García-Salguero et al. Rev Esp Quimioter. 2023 Oct.

Abstract
in English, Spanish

During the multiple waves of COVID-19 suffered all over the world, having a rapid and sensitive diagnostic test has become a priority for microbiology laboratories. The AptimaTM SARS-CoV-2 transcription-mediated amplification (TMA) assay running on the Panther system (Hologic) was presented as a very good option to cover this need. To evaluate this system, 570 respiratory samples were included in the study and were processed both by the Panther (Hologic) system and by qRT-PCR (Thermo Fisher Science, Waltham, USA), current assay for the diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). A high number of false positives (n=76) was obtained with Panther system (Hologic), but the number of false positives decreases as the relative light units (RLU) value increases. These results show that this technique can be a good option for sample screening but checking for positive results should be mandatory, especially those with low RLU values.

Durante las múltiples oleadas de COVID-19 sufridas en todo el mundo, disponer de una prueba diagnóstica rápida y sensible se ha convertido en una prioridad para los laboratorios de microbiología. El ensayo de amplificación mediada por transcripción (TMA) AptimaTM SARS-CoV-2 que se ejecuta en el sistema Panther (Hologic) se presentó como una muy buena opción para cubrir esta necesidad. Para evaluar este sistema, se incluyeron en el estudio 570 muestras respiratorias y se procesaron tanto por el sistema Panther (Hologic) como por qRT-PCR (Thermo Fisher Science, Waltham, EE. UU.), técnica utilizada actualmente para el diagnóstico del síndrome respiratorio agudo severo por coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Se obtuvo un alto número de falsos positivos (n=76) con el sistema Panther (Hologic), pero el número de falsos positivos disminuye a medida que aumenta el valor de las unidades relativas de luz (RLU). Estos resultados muestran que esta técnica puede ser una buena opción como técnica de screening, pero la verificación de resultados positivos debería ser obligatoria, especialmente aquellos con valores bajos de RLU.

Keywords: COVID-19; Panther; RT-qPCR; SARS-CoV-2; TMA.

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Conflict of interest statement

Authors declare no conflict of interest.

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