Ophthalmology practice in COVID-19 pandemic: Performance of rapid antigen test versus real time-reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in a tertiary eye care institute in South India

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the rapid antigen test (RAT) against the gold standard reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to screen COVID-19 infection in asymptomatic patients undergoing ophthalmic procedures. Methods: This was a retrospective hospital-based study. Point-of-care (PoC) RAT was performed using nasopharyngeal swab, while RT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2 viral RNA was performed using both nasopharyngeal and throat swabs. Results: A total of 629 patients were tested for SARS-CoV-2 by using both RAT and RT-PCR. Only one patient had tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 with both RAT and RT-PCR, while two patients had tested positive with RT-PCR after an initial negative RAT. The positivity rate for RAT was 0.15% (1/629), and that for RT-PCR was 0.47%. Percent agreement or proportion of agreement observed between the two tests was 99.68%, while Cohen's kappa coefficient value was 0.49. The sensitivity of RAT in comparison to RT-PCR was 33.33%, specificity was 100%, positive predictive value was 100%, and negative predictive value was 99.68%. Conclusion: The sensitivity and Cohen's kappa coefficient in our study were low but that can be attributed to the overall low positivity rates with both RAT and RT-PCR. However, percent agreement observed between the two tests was very high. Therefore, we recommend initial screening of all the patients for COVID-19 symptoms followed by RAT before performing any ophthalmic surgical procedure to ensure the safety of the health care professionals as well as the patients.

Keywords

• covid-19
• ophthalmic surgery
• rapid antigen test
• rt-pcr