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Detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies is insufficient for the diagnosis of active or cured COVID-19

Escribano, Pilar; Alvarez-Uria, Ana; Alonso, Roberto; Catalan, Pilar; Alcal, Luis; Munoz, Patricia; Guinea, Jesus

SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
2020
VL / 10 - BP / - EP /
abstract
We assessed the performance of Abbott's SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay and the Panbio(TM) COVID-19 IgG/IgM rapid test device for the diagnosis of either active or cured COVID-19. Three cohorts of patients were chosen. Cohort 1, patients (n=65) who attended the emergency department on March 30, 2020 with clinical suspicion of active COVID-19 (n=56 with proven/probable COVID-19). Cohort 2, hospital workers (n=92) who had either been (n=40) or not (n=52) diagnosed with proven/probable COVID-19 and were asymptomatic at the time of the sampling. Cohort 3, patients (n=38) cared at the hospital before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Detection of serum antibodies was done using Abbott ' s SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay and the Panbio(TM) COVID-19 IgG/IgM device. Both methods showed 98% agreement for IgG detection. No antibodies were detected in the 38 samples from hospitalized pre-COVID subjects. The diagnostic performance of IgGs detected by Abbott ' s SARS-CoV-2 assay in Cohorts 1/2 was: sensitivity (60.7%/75%) and specificity (100%/84.6%). The diagnostic performance of IgM by Panbio(TM) COVID-19 in Cohorts 1/2 was: sensitivity (16%/17.5%) and specificity (100%/98.1%). We show that IgG detection alone is insufficient for the diagnosis of active or cured COVID-19. IgM detection has a limited diagnostic value.

AccesS level

Gold, Green published

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