SARS-CoV-2 antigen tests for screening of healthcare workers; experience with over 48,000 combined antigen tests and RT-PCR tests

ABSTRACT:

Background

To prevent spread to patients and co-workers, health care workers (HCWs) infected with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) should quickly be identified. Although real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is the gold standard, this test takes several hours, during which a HCW is unable to work. Antigen (Ag) tests may be an efficacious means of screening HCWs since they are easy to perform and provide fast results.

Methods

In this study, 48,010 paired results of Ag-testing and RT-PCR, performed on HCWs between January 2021 and April 2022, were evaluated to determine the diagnostic accuracy of SARS-CoV-2 Ag-tests in diagnosing potentially infectious individuals. This analysis was performed with cycling threshold values (Ct-values) ≤30 a

SUBMITTER:  

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9652101 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature