Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

May 8, 2020

Meta-Analysis of Diagnostic Performance of Serological Tests for SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies and Public Health Implications

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  • A meta-analysis of the diagnostic performance of several serological tests (commercial ELISA or CMIA/CLIA assays and in-house tests) to assess their real-world performance under scenarios of varying proportion of infected individuals found high specificity (pooled estimates of 98% for IgM and 99% for both IgG and total antibodies) but an unsatisfactory pooled sensitivity of 82-85%. 
  • Even with high specificity, the data suggest that serological tests for large-scale prevalence surveys may only be justifiable in hard-hit areas where the positive predictive value of a positive test would be acceptable, and that they should be used with caution elsewhere. 

Caini et al. (May 8, 2020). Meta-Analysis of Diagnostic Performance of Serological Tests for SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies and Public Health Implications. Pre-print downloaded May 8 from https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.05.03.20084160