Panbio antigen rapid test is reliable to diagnose SARS-CoV-2 infection in the first 7 days after the onset of symptoms

Abstract

Highlights The new antigen tests for COVID19 are an indispensable tool in the control of the pandemic due to their adequate sensitivity and specificity. The implementation of the point of care technique in primary care is feasible and has good results. Less than 5 days of evolution of the onset of symptoms and CT less than 27 in the PCR would define the results of the antigen techniques.

The Comparative Clinical Performance of Four SARS-CoV-2 Rapid Antigen Tests and Their Correlation to Infectivity In Vitro

“…In line with our results, previous studies analyzing the performance of different antigen tests reported a consistently high specificity but a broad spectrum of sensitivity that seems to be lower than the sensitivity range reported by the manufacturers [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. These differences might be due to multiple factors, such as the moment of testing in the infection phase, the cohort size, the sampling site, the specimen quality, and the handling and preparation, or related to the distribution of CT-values using non-standardized rRT-PCR.…”

“…Numerous commercial assays are now available [ 5 ], but there are limited data on their clinical performance. Based on previous studies, the sensitivity of SARS-CoV-2 Ag-RDTs range between 22.9% and 93.9% when compared to rRT-PCR [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 ]. Apart from sensitivity, it is important that such tests identify potentially contagious individuals to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission.…”

Head-to-Head Comparison of Rapid and Automated Antigen Detection Tests for the Diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 Infection

“…In the literature, we identified at least four studies that evaluated the Panbio COVID-19 Ag rapid test [ 8 , 12 , 14 , 17 , 22 ]. In a population of 341 patients, Fenollar et al found a specificity of 94.9% and a good sensitivity but only for samples with Ct values <25 (i.e., 94.2 to 100%) [ 12 ].…”

“…Head-to-head comparisons of AD test performance for SARS-CoV-2 detection are scarce. The majority of the studies only included few patients, precluding a wide characterization of the “real-life” performance of these devices [ 3 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. Recently, a Cochrane study found an average sensitivity of only 56.2% (95% confidence interval (CI): 29.5–79.8%) for rapid AD (RAD) tests [ 11 ].…”

Evaluation of a rapid antigen test (Panbio™ COVID-19 Ag rapid test device) for SARS-CoV-2 detection in asymptomatic close contacts of COVID-19 patients

“…Moreover, two recently evaluated RAD assays (BD Veritor System and the Panbio™ COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test Device) may be used as a proxy for SARS-CoV-2 cultured from respiratory tract specimens, thus allowing reasonably accurate prediction of contagiousness [ 2 , 3 ]; yet this assumption awaits further validation in larger cohorts. The possibility of using RAD tests to identify SARS-CoV-2-infected asymptomatic contacts of COVID-19 patients is appealing, as it could effectively contribute to minimize community SARS-CoV-2 spread through early detection of highly infectious individuals [ 1 ], yet little is known about how RAD tests perform in this population group [ [4] , [5] , [6] ]. Here, we report on the performance of the Panbio™ COVID-19 Ag Rapid Test Device (Abbott Diagnostic GmbH, Jena, Germany) conducted at POC in this setting.…”