Point-of-care testing of SARS -CoV-2 and influenza A and B at hospital emergency room during Covid-19 pandemic among patients with acute respiratory diseases

Introduction. The most common causes of acute respiratory diseases (ARD) with significant morbidity and mortality include, for a long time, the influenza virus and, in recent years, also the SARS-Cov-2 virus. Patients with various clinical symptoms are triaged in emergency rooms of hospitals, and therefore their rapid and reliable diagnostics is essential in order to prevent the spread of ARD. Molecular genetic point-of-care testing (POCT) at the point of care represents a significant advance in clinical diagnostics. Materials and methods. Diagnostics of viral agents of ARD took place from December 2021 to February 2022. 1046 nasopharynx swabs samples were collected in the emergency room of I. Internal Clinic of the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius University and the University Hospital in Bratislava. SARSCov-2 and influenza were detected from the same sample using the cobas® SARS-Cov-2 & Influenza A/B test on the cobas® Liat® system. Results. From the total number of biological material collected, the SARS-Cov-2 virus was detected in 135 samples (12.9 %), while the highest incidence of positive samples was in February 2022 - 86 (20.9 % positivity), followed by December 2021 - 31 (23.0 % positivity) and January 2022 - 18 (13.3% positivity). Influenza type A virus was detected in two samples (0.2%) and influenza type B virus was not detected. Conclusion. POCT made it possible to significantly improve the screening of patients and minimize the risk of nosocomial transmission of respiratory infections in the hospital thanks to the rapid and accurate diagnosis of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and influenza A/B (Fig. 3, Ref. 32). Text v PDF www.lekarsky.herba. sk. © 2023, Lekarsky Obzor. All Rights Reserved.

Application of Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) in Diagnostics of Influenza during COVID-19 Pandemic in elderly Hospitalized People (Short Communication)

Influenza is a viral disease of the respiratory tract which affects a relatively large number of people in Slovakia and around the world every year. The patient groups most at risk are the elderly and immunocompromised patients in whom the disease can have serious outcomes including death. Therefore, early diagnosis of influenza and subsequent epidemiological management is very important. Point-of-care testing (POCT) seems to be very useful for rapid molecular diagnosis of influenza A and B viruses in patient samples. In today's coronavirus

Application of Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) in diagnostics of influenza

Influenza is a viral disease of the respiratory tract, which affects a relatively large number of people in Slovakia and even around the world every year. The most risk patient groups are the elderly and immunocompromised patients with serious outcomes and increased mortality. Therefore early diagnosis of influenza and subsequent epidemiological management is very important. For this purpose POCT („point-of-care tests“ or „bedside tests“) seems to be very useful for rapid molecular genetic detection of influenza A and B viruses in samples of the patients. Today rapid diagnostic tests for influenza and coronavirus available at emergency departments in all Slovak hospitals are promising way how to be more effective in patient triage and they can minimise number of nosocomial infections due to respiratory virus infections. © 2020 UKSS and NASS