Diagnostic performance of RT-PCR-based sample pooling strategy for the detection of SARS-CoV-2.
Ann Clin Microbiol Antimicrob
; 21(1): 11, 2022 Mar 14.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1741944
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 has created a shortage of supplies of reagents for its detection throughout the world, especially in Latin America. The pooling of samples consists of combining individual patient samples in a block and analyzing the group as a particular sample. This strategy has been shown to reduce the burden of laboratory material and logistical resources by up to 80%. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the pool of samples analyzed by RT-PCR to detect SARS-CoV-2.METHODS:
A cross-sectional study of diagnostic tests was carried out. We individually evaluated 420 samples, and 42 clusters were formed, each one with ten samples. These clusters could contain 0, 1 or 2 positive samples to simulate a positivity of 0, 10 and 20%, respectively. RT-PCR analyzed the groups for the detection of SARS-CoV-2. The area under the ROC curve (AUC), the Youden index, the global and subgroup sensitivity and specificity were calculated according to their Ct values that were classified as high (H ≤ 25), moderate (M 26-30) and low (L 31-35) concentration of viral RNA.RESULTS:
From a total of 42 pools, 41 (97.6%) obtained the same result as the samples they contained (positive or negative). The AUC for pooling, Youden index, sensitivity, and specificity were 0.98 (95% CI, 0.95-1); 0.97 (95% CI, 0.90-1.03); 96.67% (95% CI; 88.58-100%) and 100% (95% CI; 95.83-100%) respectively. In the stratified analysis of the pools containing samples with Ct ≤ 25, the sensitivity was 100% (95% CI; 90-100%), while with the pools containing samples with Ct ≥ 31, the sensitivity was 80% (95% CI, 34.94-100%). Finally, a higher median was observed in the Ct of the clusters, with respect to the individual samples (p < 0.001).CONCLUSIONS:
The strategy of pooling nasopharyngeal swab samples for analysis by SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR showed high diagnostic performance.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
SARS-CoV-2
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
/
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
/
Randomized controlled trials
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Ann Clin Microbiol Antimicrob
Journal subject:
Microbiology
/
Drug Therapy
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
S12941-022-00501-x
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