Hada Vivek, Rath Rama S, Mohanty Aroop, Sahai Rishabh, Kumar Kanishka, Kumar Subodh, Joshi Hari S, Kishore Surekha
Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Gorakhpur, Gorakhpur, IND.
Community Medicine and Family Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Gorakhpur, Gorakhpur, IND.
Cureus. 2021 Jul 6;13(7):e16206. doi: 10.7759/cureus.16206. eCollection 2021 Jul.
Background The advent of the second wave of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in India caused a new range of challenges in diagnosing the virus. Various point-of-care tests have been introduced for rapid diagnosis. Although rapid antigen tests are the most commonly used, the false-negative rates are high. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to compare the positivity rate of real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) testing in rapid antigen-negative cases of COVID-19 during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology This was an observational study conducted in the Department of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Gorakhpur. Results In total, 2,168 patients were tested. The percentage positivity rate of the RT-PCR tests among the antigen-negative samples was 4.34% in the first wave of the pandemic whereas it was 8.08% in the second wave. Conclusions The main conclusion of this study was that antigen tests should never be used alone for the diagnosis of COVID-19. Instead, they should be confirmed with a RT-PCR test.
背景 2019 冠状病毒病（COVID-19）第二波疫情在印度的出现给病毒诊断带来了一系列新挑战。为实现快速诊断，已推出了各种即时检测方法。尽管快速抗原检测是最常用的，但假阴性率很高。因此，本研究的目的是比较在 COVID-19 大流行的第一波和第二波期间，COVID-19 快速抗原检测阴性病例中实时聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）检测的阳性率。方法 这是一项在戈勒克布尔全印度医学科学研究所微生物学系进行的观察性研究。结果 总共对 2168 名患者进行了检测。在大流行的第一波中，抗原阴性样本中 RT-PCR 检测的阳性率为 4.34%，而在第二波中为 8.08%。结论 本研究的主要结论是，抗原检测绝不应单独用于 COVID-19 的诊断。相反，应用 RT-PCR 检测进行确认。
