Comparative field study of Rapid-Antigen Detection (RAD) with Multiplex Real Time-PCR for COVID-19 diagnosis

Mr Hussan; Fadia  waheed; Habib  Ullah; Muhammad  Khurram; Ghadir  Ali; Maryam  Shahid; Faisal  Zaman; . Abdullah; Asraf Hussain  Hashmi

doi:10.54393/pbmj.v5i4.397

Authors

Mr Hussan Department of Microbiology, University of Haripur, Pakistan
Fadia waheed Institute of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan
Habib Ullah Department of Life Sciences, School of Science, University of management and Technology Lahore, Pakistan
Muhammad Khurram Department of Life Sciences, School of Science, University of management and Technology Lahore, Pakistan
Ghadir Ali Department of Life Sciences, School of Science, University of management and Technology Lahore, Pakistan
Maryam Shahid Institute of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan
Faisal Zaman Department of Microbiology, University of Haripur, Pakistan
. Abdullah Department of Biotechnology International Islamic University Islamabad, Pakistan
Asraf Hussain Hashmi Institute of Biological and Genetic Engineering, Islamabad, Pakistan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54393/pbmj.v5i4.397

Abstract

RT-PCR is a gold standard test for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV2 (Covid-19) infection; however, it is an expensive, time consuming and technical demanding technique. Rapid antigen detection immunoassay (RAD) is cost-effective, quick as well as can be performed and interpreted easily. The rapid diagnosis of COVID-19 patients is essential to reduce cost and control the disease spread; however, the real world data of these tests must be validated with RT-PCR before they can be used at large scale. The objective of this study was to determine the sensitivity and specificity of Panbio^TMCOVID-19 Ag-Rapid test device (Abbot) with multiplex RT-PCR. METHODS: A total of n=3509 samples were tested for SARS-CoV-2 RAD and RT-PCR at Institute of Biomedical and Genetic Engineering, Islamabad. The rapid antigen tests were performed by Panbio^TMCOVID-19 Ag-Rapid test device (Abbott) and compared with RT-PCR performed on Thermo Fisher (ABI) Quant Studio 5 using CDC 2019-nCoV RT-PCR protocol. RESULTS: Total (n=3509), n=458 (7.60%) samples were reported positive by rapid antigen out of which n= 445 RT-PCR positive (13 false positive by rapid antigen), n=3051 (92.4%) were negative. True antigen negative tests n= 3051) were repeated with RT-PCR among these, n=25 were observed RT-PCR positive (rapid antigen false negative). The threshold cycle (CT) for the RT-PCR tests of these samples was >30. CONCLUSION: Panbio^TMCOVID-19 Ag-Rapid test devices (Abbott) showed a sensitivity ratio 94.6% compared to RT-PCR. The ^PanbioTMCOVID-19 Ag-Rapid test device (Abbott) is reliable and can be used for screening and isolation of positive patients from the population.

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