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Follow-Up SARS-CoV-2 PCR Testing Outcomes From a Large Reference Lab in the US

By analyzing COVID-19 sequential COVID-19 test results of patients across the United States, we herein attempt to quantify some of the observations we've made around long-term infection (and false-positive rates), as well as provide observations on the uncertainty of sampling variability and ot...

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Autores principales: Sullivan, Adam, Alfego, David, Poirier, Brian, Williams, Jonathan, Adcock, Dorothy, Letovsky, Stan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8200821/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34136460
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.679012
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author Sullivan, Adam
Alfego, David
Poirier, Brian
Williams, Jonathan
Adcock, Dorothy
Letovsky, Stan
author_facet Sullivan, Adam
Alfego, David
Poirier, Brian
Williams, Jonathan
Adcock, Dorothy
Letovsky, Stan
author_sort Sullivan, Adam
collection PubMed
description By analyzing COVID-19 sequential COVID-19 test results of patients across the United States, we herein attempt to quantify some of the observations we've made around long-term infection (and false-positive rates), as well as provide observations on the uncertainty of sampling variability and other dynamics of COVID-19 infection in the United States. Retrospective cohort study of a registry of RT-PCR testing results for all patients tested at any of the reference labs operated by Labcorp(®) including both positive, negative, and inconclusive results, from March 1, 2020 to January 28, 2021, including patients from all 50 states and outlying US territories. The study included 22 million patients with RT-PCR qualitative test results for SARS-CoV-2, of which 3.9 million had more than one test at Labcorp. We observed a minuscule <0.1% basal positive rate for follow up tests >115 days, which could account for false positives, long-haulers, and/or reinfection but is indistinguishable in the data. In observing repeat-testing, for patients who have a second test after a first RT-PCR, 30% across the cohort tested negative on the second test. For patients who test positive first and subsequently negative within 96 h (40% of positive test results), 18% of tests will subsequently test positive within another 96-h span. For those who first test negative and then positive within 96 h (2.3% of negative tests), 56% will test negative after a third and subsequent 96-h period. The sudden changes in RT-PCR test results for SARS-CoV-2 from this large cohort study suggest that negative test results during active infection or exposure can change rapidly within just days or hours. We also demonstrate that there does not appear to be a basal false positive rate among patients who test positive >115 days after their first RT-PCR positive test while failing to observe any evidence of widespread reinfection.
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spelling pubmed-82008212021-06-15 Follow-Up SARS-CoV-2 PCR Testing Outcomes From a Large Reference Lab in the US Sullivan, Adam Alfego, David Poirier, Brian Williams, Jonathan Adcock, Dorothy Letovsky, Stan Front Public Health Public Health By analyzing COVID-19 sequential COVID-19 test results of patients across the United States, we herein attempt to quantify some of the observations we've made around long-term infection (and false-positive rates), as well as provide observations on the uncertainty of sampling variability and other dynamics of COVID-19 infection in the United States. Retrospective cohort study of a registry of RT-PCR testing results for all patients tested at any of the reference labs operated by Labcorp(®) including both positive, negative, and inconclusive results, from March 1, 2020 to January 28, 2021, including patients from all 50 states and outlying US territories. The study included 22 million patients with RT-PCR qualitative test results for SARS-CoV-2, of which 3.9 million had more than one test at Labcorp. We observed a minuscule <0.1% basal positive rate for follow up tests >115 days, which could account for false positives, long-haulers, and/or reinfection but is indistinguishable in the data. In observing repeat-testing, for patients who have a second test after a first RT-PCR, 30% across the cohort tested negative on the second test. For patients who test positive first and subsequently negative within 96 h (40% of positive test results), 18% of tests will subsequently test positive within another 96-h span. For those who first test negative and then positive within 96 h (2.3% of negative tests), 56% will test negative after a third and subsequent 96-h period. The sudden changes in RT-PCR test results for SARS-CoV-2 from this large cohort study suggest that negative test results during active infection or exposure can change rapidly within just days or hours. We also demonstrate that there does not appear to be a basal false positive rate among patients who test positive >115 days after their first RT-PCR positive test while failing to observe any evidence of widespread reinfection. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-05-31 /pmc/articles/PMC8200821/ /pubmed/34136460 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.679012 Text en Copyright © 2021 Sullivan, Alfego, Poirier, Williams, Adcock and Letovsky. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Sullivan, Adam
Alfego, David
Poirier, Brian
Williams, Jonathan
Adcock, Dorothy
Letovsky, Stan
Follow-Up SARS-CoV-2 PCR Testing Outcomes From a Large Reference Lab in the US
title Follow-Up SARS-CoV-2 PCR Testing Outcomes From a Large Reference Lab in the US
title_full Follow-Up SARS-CoV-2 PCR Testing Outcomes From a Large Reference Lab in the US
title_fullStr Follow-Up SARS-CoV-2 PCR Testing Outcomes From a Large Reference Lab in the US
title_full_unstemmed Follow-Up SARS-CoV-2 PCR Testing Outcomes From a Large Reference Lab in the US
title_short Follow-Up SARS-CoV-2 PCR Testing Outcomes From a Large Reference Lab in the US
title_sort follow-up sars-cov-2 pcr testing outcomes from a large reference lab in the us
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8200821/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34136460
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.679012
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