Faculty of Medicine, Hotel Dieu de France Hospital, University of Saint Joseph, 17-5208 Beirut, Lebanon.
Faculty of Medicine, Rafiq Hariri Hospital, Lebanese University, 65-7314 Beirut, Lebanon.
J Public Health (Oxf). 2022 Mar 7;44(1):e36-e41. doi: 10.1093/pubmed/fdab215.
Early screening for COVID-19 is needed to limit the spread of the virus. The aim of this study is to test if the sniffer dogs can be successfully trained to identify subjects with COVID-19 for 'proof of concept' and 'non-inferiority' against PCR. We are calling this method, Dognosis (DN).
Four hundred and fifty-nine subjects were included, 256 (Group 'P') were known cases of COVID-19 (PCR positive, some with and some without symptoms) and 203 (Group 'C') were PCR negative and asymptomatic (control). Samples were obtained from the axillary sweat of each subject in a masked fashion. Two dogs trained to detect specific Volatile Organic Compounds for COVID-19 detection were used to test each sample.
[DN] turned out positive (+) in all the cases that were PCR positive (100% sensitivity). On the other hand, [DN] turned positive (+) in an average of 12.5 cases (6.2%) that were initially PCR negative (apparent specificity of 93.8%). When the PCR was repeated, true specificity was 97.2%. These parameters varied in subgroups from 100% sensitivity and 99% specificity in symptomatic patients to 100% sensitivity and 93% specificity in asymptomatic patients.
DN method shows high sensitivity and specificity in screening COVID-19 patients.
需要早期筛查 COVID-19 以限制病毒传播。本研究旨在测试嗅探犬是否可以成功训练以识别 COVID-19 患者，以达到“概念验证”和对 PCR 的“非劣效性”。我们将这种方法称为 Dognosis（DN）。
纳入了 459 名受试者，其中 256 名（P 组）为 COVID-19 的已知病例（PCR 阳性，有些有症状，有些无症状），203 名（C 组）为 PCR 阴性且无症状（对照组）。以掩蔽方式从每个受试者的腋窝汗中采集样本。使用经过训练以检测 COVID-19 特定挥发性有机化合物的两只狗来测试每个样本。
DN 对所有 PCR 阳性的病例均呈阳性（100%的敏感性）。另一方面，DN 在最初 PCR 阴性的平均 12.5 例病例中呈阳性（平均特异性为 93.8%）。当重复进行 PCR 时，真正的特异性为 97.2%。这些参数在亚组中有所不同，从有症状患者的 100%敏感性和 99%特异性到无症状患者的 100%敏感性和 93%特异性。
DN 方法在筛查 COVID-19 患者方面具有高敏感性和特异性。
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