Open AccessAre SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen tests useful for the control of latest variants spreading?
Author(s) -
Nadia Marascio,
Angela Quirino,
Giuseppe Guido Maria Scarlata,
Giorgio Settimo Barreca,
Aida Giancotti,
Angelo Giuseppe Lamberti,
Luigia Gallo,
Francesco Foti,
Domenico Luca Laurendi,
Daniela Dattola,
Antonino Marsico,
Antonia La Rocca,
Giovanni Matera
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
le infezioni in medicina
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.395
H-Index - 22
eISSN - 2532-8689
pISSN - 1124-9390
DOI - 10.53854/liim-3003-11
Subject(s) - covid-19 , gold standard (test) , virology , medicine , quarantine , pandemic , antigen , coronavirus , reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction , population , spike protein , immunology , biology , messenger rna , gene , pathology , outbreak , genetics , infectious disease (medical specialty) , environmental health , disease
Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) conducted on nasopharyngeal swabs is the gold standard in the diagnosis of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). In Italy, recent guidelines indicate that rapid antigen tests (RATs) can be used for the isolation of positive patients or for the interruption of quarantine, but they are often less sensitive to detect positive subjects. Indeed, the performance of these RATs depends on the timing and the population on which they are evaluated. Herein, we evaluated the performance of BIOCREDIT COVID-19 Ag and Fluorecare ® SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Test during a population screening in the Calabria Region, Southern Italy. We report that both antigen test shows low sensitivity in contrast to the high sensitivity declared by manufacturer (90% and 92%, respectively) and that the area under the curve (AUC) was good for Fluorecare ® SARS-CoV- 2 Spike Protein Test but very poor for BIOCREDIT COVID-19 Ag. We suggest that these RATs should be re-evaluated in the current pandemic era.