Alliance for Pandemic Preparedness

September 30, 2020

Comparative Study of Four SARS-CoV-2 Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) Platforms Demonstrates That ID NOW Performance Is Impaired Substantially by Patient and Specimen Type

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  • The nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) platform Abbott ID NOW performed significantly worse than similar tests (Abbott m2000, DiaSorine Simplexa, and Cepheid Xpert) in detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA in a comparative study. All four tests were used in parallel on nasopharyngeal and nasal samples from 88 emergency department and hospital-admitted patients. In particular, the ID NOW platform performed poorly in samples with a low viral load (high cycle time) that were detected as positive by the other tests.

Lephart et al. (Sept 3, 2021). Comparative Study of Four SARS-CoV-2 Nucleic Acid Amplification Test (NAAT) Platforms Demonstrates That ID NOW Performance Is Impaired Substantially by Patient and Specimen Type. Diagnostic Microbiology and Infectious Disease. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2020.115200