tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Infect Chemother
. 2023 Nov 13.
doi: 10.3947/ic.2023.0077. Online ahead of print. Usefulness of The Rapid Antigen Test in Detecting SARS-CoV-2 for Infection Control in Hospitals
Jeong Young Lee[SUP] #[/SUP][SUP] 1 [/SUP], Jiwon Jung[SUP] #[/SUP][SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Jae Lim Jo[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Young-Ju Lim[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Sun-Kyung Kim[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Hyejin Yang[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Soyeon Park[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Eun Ok Kim[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Sung-Han Kim[SUP] 1 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Background: We aimed at evaluating the diagnostic performance of rapid antigen test (RAT) compared to PCR for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and the possible transmission of infection to close contacts from patients with negative RAT and positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results.
Materials and methods: Patients/guardians urgently requiring admission to the ward on the same day had been hospitalized with RAT-negative result before the PCR results were available. We performed an epidemiologic investigation of the close contacts of those with negative RAT but positive PCR results after hospitalization.
Results: A total of 4,237 RATs were performed from March to August 2022. When the PCR test was used as the reference, RAT had a sensitivity of 28.8% (17/59; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 17.8 - 42.1), a specificity of 100% (4,220/4,220; 95% CI: 99.9 - 100.0), a positive predictive value of 100.0% (17/17; 95% CI: 100.0 - 100.0), and a negative predictive value of 99.0% (4,178/4,220; 95% CI: 99.3 - 99.8). The epidemiologic investigation revealed that among the 32 patients with negative RAT and subsequent positive PCR results after admission into multi-patient room, two (6.3%) showed secondary coronavirus disease 2019.
Conclusion: The secondary transmission rate from patients with negative RAT and positive PCR results was low. Our data suggest that RAT may be useful for rapid exclusion of high transmissible cases. However, further evaluation using whole genome sequencing is needed to determine the potential for transmissibility in cases showing a negative RAT but a positive PCR result.
Keywords: COVID-19; Contact tracing; Infection control; Rapid diagnostic test.
. 2023 Nov 13.
doi: 10.3947/ic.2023.0077. Online ahead of print. Usefulness of The Rapid Antigen Test in Detecting SARS-CoV-2 for Infection Control in Hospitals
Jeong Young Lee[SUP] #[/SUP][SUP] 1 [/SUP], Jiwon Jung[SUP] #[/SUP][SUP] 1 2 [/SUP], Jae Lim Jo[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Young-Ju Lim[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Sun-Kyung Kim[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Hyejin Yang[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Soyeon Park[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Eun Ok Kim[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Sung-Han Kim[SUP] 1 3 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 38014727
- DOI: 10.3947/ic.2023.0077
Background: We aimed at evaluating the diagnostic performance of rapid antigen test (RAT) compared to PCR for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 and the possible transmission of infection to close contacts from patients with negative RAT and positive polymerase chain reaction (PCR) results.
Materials and methods: Patients/guardians urgently requiring admission to the ward on the same day had been hospitalized with RAT-negative result before the PCR results were available. We performed an epidemiologic investigation of the close contacts of those with negative RAT but positive PCR results after hospitalization.
Results: A total of 4,237 RATs were performed from March to August 2022. When the PCR test was used as the reference, RAT had a sensitivity of 28.8% (17/59; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 17.8 - 42.1), a specificity of 100% (4,220/4,220; 95% CI: 99.9 - 100.0), a positive predictive value of 100.0% (17/17; 95% CI: 100.0 - 100.0), and a negative predictive value of 99.0% (4,178/4,220; 95% CI: 99.3 - 99.8). The epidemiologic investigation revealed that among the 32 patients with negative RAT and subsequent positive PCR results after admission into multi-patient room, two (6.3%) showed secondary coronavirus disease 2019.
Conclusion: The secondary transmission rate from patients with negative RAT and positive PCR results was low. Our data suggest that RAT may be useful for rapid exclusion of high transmissible cases. However, further evaluation using whole genome sequencing is needed to determine the potential for transmissibility in cases showing a negative RAT but a positive PCR result.
Keywords: COVID-19; Contact tracing; Infection control; Rapid diagnostic test.