January 25, 2021

Antigen-Based Testing but Not Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Correlates With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Viral Culture

Category: Article Summary

Topic: Testing and Treatment

Keywords (Tags): testing, transmission

Antigen testing using the BD Veritor System for SARS-CoV-2 demonstrated a higher positive predictive value (90%) than rt-PCR (70%) with the Quidel Lyra SARS-CoV-2 Assay when compared to virus culture as the gold standard. The positive percentage agreement for detection of infectious virus for the antigen test was similar to rt-PCR when compared to culture results. The authors suggest that the low cost and scalability of antigen-based testing could be important for suppressing community transmission. 

Pekosz et al. (Jan 20, 2021). Antigen-Based Testing but Not Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction Correlates With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Viral Culture. Clinical Infectious Diseases. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa1706