Performance of Rapid Antigen Tests to Detect Symptomatic and Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection
2023
The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of rapid antigen tests (Ag-RDTs) for detection of SARS-CoV-2 among symptomatic and asymptomatic participants. The general findings were that the performance of Ag-RDTs was optimized when asymptomatic participants tested 3 times at 48-hour intervals and when symptomatic participants tested 2 times separated by 48 hours.
Participants completed Ag-RDTs and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing for SARS-CoV-2 every 48 hours for 15 days. They self-collected anterior nasal swabs for Ag-RDTs and RT-PCR testing. Nasal swabs for RT-PCR were shipped to a central laboratory, whereas Ag-RDTs were done at home. The sensitivity of Ag-RDTs was measured on the basis of testing once (same-day), twice (after 48 hours), and thrice (after a total of 96 hours).
Serial testing with Ag-RDTs twice 48 hours apart resulted in an aggregated sensitivity of 93.4% among symptomatic participants. It was lower for asymptomatic patients at 62.7% (CI, 57.0% to 70.5%) but improved to 79.0% (CI, 70.1% to 87.4%) with testing 3 times at 48-hour intervals.
Performance of Rapid Antigen Tests to Detect Symptomatic and Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection
Source:
Soni A, Herbert C, Lin H et al. Performance of Rapid Antigen Tests to Detect Symptomatic and Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Prospective Cohort Study. Annals of Internal Medicine 2023; 176 (7): 975-982. https://doi.org/10.7326/m23-0385