Usefulness of TrueNat: A Chip-based Real-time PCR Test for COVID-19
Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research
; 15(9):BC01-BC03, 2021.
Article
in English
| Web of Science | ID: covidwho-1689811
ABSTRACT
Introduction:
For the containment of growing Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic, rapid diagnostic facilities are need of today. Indigenously developed TrueNat assay is a point-of-care assay developed for early diagnosis of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). It is a portable, fully automated, chip-based, real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction system with a turnaround time of 1.5-2 hours.Aim:
To assess the practical utility and diagnostic accuracy of TrueNat testing for COVID-19 in a pandemic situation. Materials andMethods:
A cohort selection cross-sectional study was conducted from July to September 2020 at Department of Biochemistry, Vardhaman Institute of Medical Sciences, Pawapuri, Bihar, India, after obtaining Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) approval. A total of 296 cases with symptoms of COVID-19 were selected for the study. Assuming real-time Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (rRT-PCR) to be the gold standard, we collected oropharyngeal swabs from symptomatic COVID-19 suspected cases and tested by both TrueNat and standard RT-PCR. Agreement between both the assays were assessed by overall, Positive Percent Agreement (PPA) and Negative Percent Agreement (NPA) and Cohen's kappa coefficient using Epitools (Ausvet 2020).Results:
Out of 296 oropharyngeal swabs taken from suspected COVID-19 patients, 19 were read as "invalid" and discarded;hence only 277 samples were tested by TrueNat and RT-PCR both. Assuming RT-PCR as standard, TrueNat assay demonstrated an overall percent agreement of 99.64%, PPA of 95.65%, NPA 99.81%. The kappa coefficient was 0.9546.Conclusion:
TrueNat assay offers a rapid, accurate and affordable technique for COVID-19. It may be deployed for mass screening and confirmation of COVID-19 cases in hospitals and remote areas.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
Web of Science
Language:
English
Journal:
Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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