The Value of Rapid Antigen Tests for Identifying Carriers of Viable SARS-CoV-2
Elena V. Shidlovskaya,
Nadezhda A. Kuznetsova,
Elizaveta V. Divisenko,
Maria A. Nikiforova,
Andrei E. Siniavin,
Daria A. Ogarkova,
Aleksandr V. Shagaev,
Maria A. Semashko,
Artem P. Tkachuk,
Olga A. Burgasova,
Vladimir A. Gushchin
Affiliations
Elena V. Shidlovskaya
N.F. Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 123098 Moscow, Russia
Nadezhda A. Kuznetsova
N.F. Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 123098 Moscow, Russia
Elizaveta V. Divisenko
N.F. Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 123098 Moscow, Russia
Maria A. Nikiforova
N.F. Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 123098 Moscow, Russia
Andrei E. Siniavin
N.F. Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 123098 Moscow, Russia
Daria A. Ogarkova
N.F. Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 123098 Moscow, Russia
Aleksandr V. Shagaev
Moscow Healthcare Department, 127006 Moscow, Russia
Maria A. Semashko
N.F. Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 123098 Moscow, Russia
Artem P. Tkachuk
N.F. Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 123098 Moscow, Russia
Olga A. Burgasova
N.F. Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 123098 Moscow, Russia
Vladimir A. Gushchin
N.F. Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ivanovsky Institute of Virology, Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, 123098 Moscow, Russia
The search for effective methods to detect patients who excrete a viable virus is one of the urgent tasks of modern biomedicine. In the present study, we examined the diagnostic value of two antigen tests, BIOCREDIT COVID-19 Ag (RapiGEN Inc., Anyang, Korea) and SGTI-flex COVID-19 Ag (Sugentech Inc., Cheongju, Korea), for their diagnostic value in identifying patients who excrete viable SARS-CoV-2. As part of the study, we examined samples from 106 patients who had just been admitted to the hospital and who had undergone quantitative RT-PCR and assessment of viability of SARS-CoV-2 using cell culture. Assessment of the tests’ value for detecting samples containing viable virus showed high sensitivity for both tests. Sensitivity was 78.6% (95% CI, from 49.2% to 95.3%) for SGTI-flex COVID-19 Ag and 100% (95% CI, from 76.8% to 100%) for Biocredit COVID-19 Ag. The specificity of rapid tests was significantly higher than that of RT-PCR and was 66.3% (95% CI, from 55.7% to 75.8%) and 67.4% (95% CI, from 56.8% to 76.8%) for SGTI-flex COVID-19 Ag and Biocredit COVID-19 Ag versus 30.4% (95% CI, from 21.3% to 40.9%) obtained for PCR. Thus, for tasks of identifying viable SARS-CoV-2 during screening of conditionally healthy people, as well as monitoring those quarantined, rapid tests show significantly better results.
