LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of inconclusive results in SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR assays

Photo from wikipedia

Background Inconclusive results in SARS-CoV-2 molecular assays cause confusion among clinicians and delay appropriate infection prevention and control. In this study, we aimed to characterize the respiratory specimens associated with… Click to show full abstract

Background Inconclusive results in SARS-CoV-2 molecular assays cause confusion among clinicians and delay appropriate infection prevention and control. In this study, we aimed to characterize the respiratory specimens associated with inconclusive SARS-CoV-2 molecular assay results. Methods We re-evaluated inconclusive specimens by 3 additional RT-PCR assays and attempted to detect subgenomic RNA (sgRNA) in these specimens. Results Among follow-up tests from confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases, 36.3% of the inconclusive results were classified as presumptive positive results (45/124). However, none of the specimens from 36 screening cases was classified as a presumptive positive result. Among 160 inconclusive specimens, sgRNAs were detected in 78 samples (48.8%): 58 were confirmed cases (58/124, 46.8%) and 20 were screening cases (20/36, 55.6%). Conclusions The results of our study suggest the recommendation of considering inconclusive results as positive results for confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases. In screening cases, viral remnants could be partially amplified in PCR assays, and these inconclusive results could be related to previous infections. In addition, sgRNAs were detected in about half of the inconclusive specimens; however, the clinical significance of sgRNA is not yet clear.

Keywords: inconclusive specimens; results sars; inconclusive results; sars cov; pcr assays

Journal Title: BMC Infectious Diseases
Year Published: 2021

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.