Combined Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2: Rapid Antigen Detection as an Adjunct to Nucleic Acid Detection

Xuewen Li; Yiting Wang; Junqi Pan; Jiancheng Xu; Qi Zhou

doi:10.1093/labmed/lmac089

Combined Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2: Rapid Antigen Detection as an Adjunct to Nucleic Acid Detection

Lab Med. 2023 Mar 7;54(2):e37-e43. doi: 10.1093/labmed/lmac089.

Authors

Xuewen Li¹, Yiting Wang¹, Junqi Pan², Jiancheng Xu¹, Qi Zhou³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Laboratory Medicine, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.
² Bachelor of Biomedicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
³ Department of Pediatrics, First Hospital of Jilin University, Changchun, China.

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 is a serious threat to human life, and early diagnosis and screening can help control the COVID-19 pandemic. The high sensitivity of reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay is the gold standard for the diagnosis of COVID-19, but there are still some false-negative results. Rapid antigen detection (RAD) is recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a screening method for COVID-19. This review analyzed the characteristics of RDT and found that although the overall sensitivity of RAD was not as high as that of RT-PCR, but RAD was more sensitive in COVID-19 patients within 5 days of the onset of symptoms and in COVID-19 patients with Ct ≤ 25. Therefore, RAD can be used as an adjunct to RT-PCR for screening patients with early COVID-19. Finally, this review provides a combined diagnostic protocol for RAD and nucleic acid testing with the aim of providing a feasible approach for COVID-19 screening.

Keywords: COVID-19; Early screening; Lateral flow immunoassay; RT-PCR; Sensitivity.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

COVID-19 Testing
COVID-19* / diagnosis
Clinical Laboratory Techniques / methods
Humans
Nucleic Acids*
Pandemics
SARS-CoV-2 / genetics
Sensitivity and Specificity

Substances

Nucleic Acids