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The importance of combining serological testing with RT-PCR assays for efficient detection of COVID-19 and higher diagnostic accuracy

Misdiagnosing suspected COVID-19 individuals could largely contribute to the viruses transmission, therefore, making an accurate diagnosis of infected subjects vital in minimizing and containing the disease. Although RT-PCR is the standard method in detecting COVID-19, it is associated with some lim...

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Autores principales: Alamri, Sawsan S., Alsaieedi, Ahdab, Khouqeer, Yousef, Afeef, Marwah, Alharbi, Samiyah, Algaissi, Abdullah, Alghanmi, Maimonah, Altorki, Tarfa, Zawawi, Ayat, Alfaleh, Mohamed A., Hashem, Anwar M., Alhabbab, Rowa
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10103696/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37065688
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15024
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author Alamri, Sawsan S.
Alsaieedi, Ahdab
Khouqeer, Yousef
Afeef, Marwah
Alharbi, Samiyah
Algaissi, Abdullah
Alghanmi, Maimonah
Altorki, Tarfa
Zawawi, Ayat
Alfaleh, Mohamed A.
Hashem, Anwar M.
Alhabbab, Rowa
author_facet Alamri, Sawsan S.
Alsaieedi, Ahdab
Khouqeer, Yousef
Afeef, Marwah
Alharbi, Samiyah
Algaissi, Abdullah
Alghanmi, Maimonah
Altorki, Tarfa
Zawawi, Ayat
Alfaleh, Mohamed A.
Hashem, Anwar M.
Alhabbab, Rowa
author_sort Alamri, Sawsan S.
collection PubMed
description Misdiagnosing suspected COVID-19 individuals could largely contribute to the viruses transmission, therefore, making an accurate diagnosis of infected subjects vital in minimizing and containing the disease. Although RT-PCR is the standard method in detecting COVID-19, it is associated with some limitations, including possible false negative results. Therefore, serological testing has been suggested as a complement assay to RT-PCR to support the diagnosis of acute infections. In this study, 15 out of 639 unvaccinated healthcare workers (HCWs) were tested negative for COVID-19 by RT-PCR and were found seropositive for SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein-specific IgM and IgG antibodies. These participants underwent additional confirmatory RT-PCR and SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific ELISA tests. Of the 15 individuals, nine participants were found negative by second RT-PCR but seropositive for anti-spike IgM and IgG antibodies and neutralizing antibodies confirming their acute infection. At the time of collection, these nine individuals were in close contact with COVID-19-confirmed patients, with 77.7% reporting COVID-19-related symptoms. These results indicate that including serological tests in the current testing profile can provide better outcomes and help contain the spread of the virus by increasing diagnostic accuracy to prevent future outbreaks rapidly.
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spelling pubmed-101036962023-04-15 The importance of combining serological testing with RT-PCR assays for efficient detection of COVID-19 and higher diagnostic accuracy Alamri, Sawsan S. Alsaieedi, Ahdab Khouqeer, Yousef Afeef, Marwah Alharbi, Samiyah Algaissi, Abdullah Alghanmi, Maimonah Altorki, Tarfa Zawawi, Ayat Alfaleh, Mohamed A. Hashem, Anwar M. Alhabbab, Rowa PeerJ Epidemiology Misdiagnosing suspected COVID-19 individuals could largely contribute to the viruses transmission, therefore, making an accurate diagnosis of infected subjects vital in minimizing and containing the disease. Although RT-PCR is the standard method in detecting COVID-19, it is associated with some limitations, including possible false negative results. Therefore, serological testing has been suggested as a complement assay to RT-PCR to support the diagnosis of acute infections. In this study, 15 out of 639 unvaccinated healthcare workers (HCWs) were tested negative for COVID-19 by RT-PCR and were found seropositive for SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein-specific IgM and IgG antibodies. These participants underwent additional confirmatory RT-PCR and SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific ELISA tests. Of the 15 individuals, nine participants were found negative by second RT-PCR but seropositive for anti-spike IgM and IgG antibodies and neutralizing antibodies confirming their acute infection. At the time of collection, these nine individuals were in close contact with COVID-19-confirmed patients, with 77.7% reporting COVID-19-related symptoms. These results indicate that including serological tests in the current testing profile can provide better outcomes and help contain the spread of the virus by increasing diagnostic accuracy to prevent future outbreaks rapidly. PeerJ Inc. 2023-04-11 /pmc/articles/PMC10103696/ /pubmed/37065688 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15024 Text en ©2023 Alamri et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Epidemiology
Alamri, Sawsan S.
Alsaieedi, Ahdab
Khouqeer, Yousef
Afeef, Marwah
Alharbi, Samiyah
Algaissi, Abdullah
Alghanmi, Maimonah
Altorki, Tarfa
Zawawi, Ayat
Alfaleh, Mohamed A.
Hashem, Anwar M.
Alhabbab, Rowa
The importance of combining serological testing with RT-PCR assays for efficient detection of COVID-19 and higher diagnostic accuracy
title The importance of combining serological testing with RT-PCR assays for efficient detection of COVID-19 and higher diagnostic accuracy
title_full The importance of combining serological testing with RT-PCR assays for efficient detection of COVID-19 and higher diagnostic accuracy
title_fullStr The importance of combining serological testing with RT-PCR assays for efficient detection of COVID-19 and higher diagnostic accuracy
title_full_unstemmed The importance of combining serological testing with RT-PCR assays for efficient detection of COVID-19 and higher diagnostic accuracy
title_short The importance of combining serological testing with RT-PCR assays for efficient detection of COVID-19 and higher diagnostic accuracy
title_sort importance of combining serological testing with rt-pcr assays for efficient detection of covid-19 and higher diagnostic accuracy
topic Epidemiology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10103696/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37065688
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.15024
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