Cargando…

Evaluation of diagnostic test procedures for SARS‐CoV‐2 using latent class models

Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and antigen tests have been used extensively for screening during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemics. However, the real‐world sensitivity and specificity of the two testing procedures in the field have not yet been estimated without assuming...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Stærk‐Østergaard, Jacob, Kirkeby, Carsten, Christiansen, Lasse E., Andersen, Michael A., Møller, Camilla H., Voldstedlund, Marianne, Denwood, Matthew J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9349895/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35713189
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jmv.27943
Descripción
Sumario:Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and antigen tests have been used extensively for screening during the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemics. However, the real‐world sensitivity and specificity of the two testing procedures in the field have not yet been estimated without assuming that the PCR constitutes a gold standard test. We use latent class models to estimate the in situ performance of both tests using data from the Danish national registries. We find that the specificity of both tests is very high (>99.7%), while the sensitivities are 95.7% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 92.8%–98.4%) and 53.8% (95% CI: 49.8%–57.9%) for the PCR and antigen tests, respectively. These findings have implications for the use of confirmatory PCR tests following a positive antigen test result: we estimate that serial testing is counterproductive at higher prevalence levels.