Routine blood analysis greatly reduces the false-negative rate of RT-PCR testing for Covid-19.
Acta Biomed
; 91(3): e2020003, 2020 09 07.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-761227
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The COVID-19 outbreak is now a pandemic disease reaching as much as 210 countries worldwide with more than 2.5 million infected people and nearly 200.000 deaths. Amplification of viral RNA by RT-PCR represents the gold standard for confirmation of infection, yet it showed false-negative rates as large as 15-20% which may jeopardize the effect of the restrictive measures taken by governments. We previously showed that several hematological parameters were significantly different between COVID-19 positive and negative patients. Among them aspartate aminotransferase and lactate dehydrogenase had predictive values as large as 90%. Thus a combination of RT-PCR and blood tests could reduce the false-negative rate of the genetic test.METHODS:
We retrospectively analyzed 24 patients showing multiple and inconsistent RT-PCR, test during their first hospitalization period, and compared the genetic tests results with their AST and LDH levels.RESULTS:
We showed that when considering the hematological parameters, the RT-PCR false-negative rates were reduced by almost 4-fold.CONCLUSIONS:
The study represents a preliminary work aiming at the development of strategies that, by combining RT-PCR tests with routine blood tests, will lower or even abolish the rate of RT-PCR false-negative results and thus will identify, with high accuracy, patients infected by COVID-19.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Pneumonia, Viral
/
RNA, Viral
/
Coronavirus Infections
/
Pandemics
/
Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction
/
Betacoronavirus
Type of study:
Cohort study
/
Diagnostic study
/
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Limits:
Adult
/
Aged
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
Language:
English
Journal:
Acta Biomed
Journal subject:
Medicine
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Abm.v91i3.9843
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