Marando Marco, Tamburello Adriana, Gianella Pietro, Taylor Rebecca, Bernasconi Enos, Fusi-Schmidhauser Tanja
Internal Medicine Department, Ospedale Regionale di Lugano, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Switzerland.
Division of Pneumology, Ospedale Regionale di Lugano, Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale, Switzerland.
Caspian J Intern Med. 2022;13(Suppl 3):139-147. doi: 10.22088/cjim.13.0.139.
Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is the current standard of reference in the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In outpatient clinical practice, nasopharyngeal swab RT-PCR testing is still the most common procedure. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the sensitivity of RT-PCR nasopharyngeal assays.
We searched three databases, including PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library, using a comprehensive strategy. Studies investigating the sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR nasopharyngeal assays in adults were included. Two reviewers extracted data and assessed trial quality independently. Pooled sensitivity and its confidence interval were computed using the meta package in R.
Thirteen studies were found eligible for the inclusion in the systematic review. Out of these, 25 different sub-studies were identified and included in the meta-analysis, which reported the sensitivities of 25 different nasopharyngeal RT-PCR assays. Finally, the overall pooled sensitivity resulted 89% (95% CI, 85.4 to 91.8%).
Our study suggests that RT-PCR assays on nasopharyngeal specimens have a substantial sensitivity for diagnosing SARS-CoV-2 infection.
逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）是目前诊断新型冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）感染的参考标准。在门诊临床实践中，鼻咽拭子RT-PCR检测仍是最常用的方法。本系统评价和荟萃分析的目的是评估RT-PCR鼻咽检测的敏感性。
我们采用综合策略检索了三个数据库，包括PubMed/MEDLINE、EMBASE和Cochrane图书馆。纳入了研究SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR鼻咽检测在成人中敏感性的研究。两名评价者独立提取数据并评估试验质量。使用R中的meta包计算合并敏感性及其置信区间。
13项研究符合纳入系统评价的条件。其中，确定了25项不同的子研究并纳入荟萃分析，这些子研究报告了25种不同鼻咽RT-PCR检测的敏感性。最后，总体合并敏感性为89%（95%CI，85.4至91.8%）。
我们的研究表明，鼻咽标本的RT-PCR检测对诊断SARS-CoV-2感染具有较高的敏感性。
