The value of rapid antigen tests for identifying carriers of viable sars-cov-2

Elena V. Shidlovskaya, Nadezhda A. Kuznetsova, Elizaveta V. Divisenko, Maria A. Nikiforova, Andrei E. Siniavin, Daria A. Ogarkova, Aleksandr V. Shagaev, Maria A. Semashko, Artem P. Tkachuk, Olga A. Burgasova, Vladimir A. Gushchin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

The search for effective methods to detect patients who excrete a viable virus is one of the urgent tasks of modern biomedicine. In the present study, we examined the diagnostic value of two antigen tests, BIOCREDIT COVID-19 Ag (RapiGEN Inc., Anyang, Korea) and SGTI-flex COVID-19 Ag (Sugentech Inc., Cheongju, Korea), for their diagnostic value in identifying patients who excrete viable SARS-CoV-2. As part of the study, we examined samples from 106 patients who had just been admitted to the hospital and who had undergone quantitative RT-PCR and assessment of vi-ability of SARS-CoV-2 using cell culture. Assessment of the tests’ value for detecting samples containing viable virus showed high sensitivity for both tests. Sensitivity was 78.6% (95% CI, from 49.2% to 95.3%) for SGTI-flex COVID-19 Ag and 100% (95% CI, from 76.8% to 100%) for Biocredit COVID-19 Ag. The specificity of rapid tests was significantly higher than that of RT-PCR and was 66.3% (95% CI, from 55.7% to 75.8%) and 67.4% (95% CI, from 56.8% to 76.8%) for SGTI-flex COVID-19 Ag and Biocredit COVID-19 Ag versus 30.4% (95% CI, from 21.3% to 40.9%) obtained for PCR. Thus, for tasks of identifying viable SARS-CoV-2 during screening of conditionally healthy people, as well as monitoring those quarantined, rapid tests show significantly better results.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number2012
JournalViruses
Volume13
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2021
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • Rapid antigen tests
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Viable virus

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Infectious Diseases
  • Virology

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