Evaluation of Efficiency and Sensitivity of 1D and 2D Sample Pooling Strategies for SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR Screening Purposes

Overview

Journal Sci Rep

Specialty Science

Date 2022 Apr 23

PMID 35459775

Authors

Jasper Verwilt

Jan Hellemans

Tom Sante

Pieter Mestdagh

Jo Vandesompele

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

To increase the throughput, lower the cost, and save scarce test reagents, laboratories can pool patient samples before SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR testing. While different sample pooling methods have been proposed and effectively implemented in some laboratories, no systematic and large-scale evaluations exist using real-life quantitative data gathered throughout the different epidemiological stages. Here, we use anonymous data from 9673 positive cases to model, simulate and compare 1D and 2D pooling strategies. We show that the optimal choice of pooling method and pool size is an intricate decision with a testing population-dependent efficiency-sensitivity trade-off and present an online tool to provide the reader with custom real-time 1D pooling strategy recommendations.

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