tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Cureus
. 2021 Dec 12;13(12):e20375.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.20375. eCollection 2021 Dec.
The Impact of False Positive COVID-19 Result
Shahad H Alsheikh[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Khaled Ibrahim[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Dunya AlFaraj[SUP] 2 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
The novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in many adverse outcomes and challenges, and a false-positive result is one of them. Despite that this issue has a substantial impact, there is a scarcity in the literature of its prevalence or impact, and more knowledge is needed. This case report will present the case of a 54-years-old female who was misdiagnosed as COVID-19. The misleading COVID-19 diagnosis can result in significant consequences such as delaying surgeries, unnecessary quarantine and treatments, transplant lists omission, and unnecessary sick leaves. Moreover, as seen in our case, it delayed the other investigations and admitted a healthy patient to a COVID-19 isolation ward. Therefore, physicians should consider the possibility of false-positive results and utilize other investigation tools to further diagnose suspicious cases.
Keywords: covid-19; ct; false positive; impact; management; rt-pcr; sars-cov-2.
. 2021 Dec 12;13(12):e20375.
doi: 10.7759/cureus.20375. eCollection 2021 Dec.
The Impact of False Positive COVID-19 Result
Shahad H Alsheikh[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Khaled Ibrahim[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Dunya AlFaraj[SUP] 2 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 35036208
- PMCID: PMC8752407
- DOI: 10.7759/cureus.20375
Abstract
The novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in many adverse outcomes and challenges, and a false-positive result is one of them. Despite that this issue has a substantial impact, there is a scarcity in the literature of its prevalence or impact, and more knowledge is needed. This case report will present the case of a 54-years-old female who was misdiagnosed as COVID-19. The misleading COVID-19 diagnosis can result in significant consequences such as delaying surgeries, unnecessary quarantine and treatments, transplant lists omission, and unnecessary sick leaves. Moreover, as seen in our case, it delayed the other investigations and admitted a healthy patient to a COVID-19 isolation ward. Therefore, physicians should consider the possibility of false-positive results and utilize other investigation tools to further diagnose suspicious cases.
Keywords: covid-19; ct; false positive; impact; management; rt-pcr; sars-cov-2.