Rapid, Point-of-Care Tests for Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 Infection
2020
Several diagnostic strategies are available to identify or rule out current infection with SARS-CoV-2, identify people in need of care escalation, or to test for past infection and immune response. Point-of-care antigen and molecular tests to detect current SARS-CoV-2 infection have the potential to allow earlier detection and isolation of confirmed cases compared to laboratory-based diagnostic methods, with the aim of reducing household and community transmission.
This study sought to assess the diagnostic accuracy of point-of-care antigen and molecular-based tests to determine if a person presenting in the community or in primary or secondary care has a current SARS-CoV-2 infection.
For antigen tests, sensitivity varied considerably across studies: the average sensitivity was 56.2% and average specificity was 99.5% based on 8 evaluations in 5 studies on 943 samples. For rapid molecular assays, sensitivity showed less variation compared to antigen tests, and average sensitivity was 95.2% and specificity 98.9% based on 13 evaluations in 11 studies on 2255 samples.
Rapid, Point-of-Care Tests for Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 Infection
Source:
Dinnes J, Sharma P, Berhane S et al. Rapid, Point-of-Care Antigen and Molecular-Based Tests for Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 Infection. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2020; 8. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD013705