Evaluation of Rapid Antigen Test for Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Virus
Overview
Authors
Affiliations
Background: The rapid diagnosis of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients is essential to reduce the disease spread. Rapid antigen detection (RAD) tests are available, however, there is scanty data on the performance of RAD tests.
Objective: To evaluate the performance of the commercially available BIOCREDIT COVID-19 Ag test and compare it with RT-PCR for detecting Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. Analytical sensitivity for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 virus was determined for the RAD test using viral culture and RT-PCR as reference methods. The RAD test was further evaluated using respiratory samples collected from confirmed COVID-19 patients. The results were compared with RT-PCR test.
Results: The detection limits between RAD test, viral culture and RT-PCR varied hugely. RAD was 10 fold less sensitive than viral culture while RAD was 10 fold less sensitive than RT-PCR. The RAD test detected between 11.1 % and 45.7 % of RT-PCR-positive samples from COVID-19 patients.
Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the RAD test serves only as adjunct to RT-PCR test because of potential for false-negative results.
Structure-Guided design of Cas12a variants improves detection of nucleic acids.
Tong X, Li T, Zhang K, Zhao D, Zhang Y, Yin H Cell Insight. 2025; 4(2):100228.
PMID: 40061934 PMC: 11889556. DOI: 10.1016/j.cellin.2025.100228.
Kumar R, Pan C, Lin Y, Yow-Ling S, Chung T, Janesha U Diagnostics (Basel). 2025; 15(3).
PMID: 39941178 PMC: 11817112. DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics15030248.
Tunable control of Cas12 activity promotes universal and fast one-pot nucleic acid detection.
Cheng Z, Luo X, Yu S, Min D, Zhang S, Li X Nat Commun. 2025; 16(1):1166.
PMID: 39885211 PMC: 11782535. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-56516-3.
Reusable Biosensor for Easy RNA Detection from Unfiltered Saliva.
Wityk P, Terebieniec A, Nowak R, Lubinski J, Mroczynska-Szelag M, Wityk T Sensors (Basel). 2025; 25(2).
PMID: 39860729 PMC: 11769206. DOI: 10.3390/s25020360.
van Beuningen R, Jim K, Boot M, Ossendrijver M, Keijser B, van de Bovenkamp J Biol Methods Protoc. 2024; 9(1):bpae090.
PMID: 39664603 PMC: 11634539. DOI: 10.1093/biomethods/bpae090.