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

12 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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