Evaluation of the Panbio COVID-19 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Test in Subjects Infected with Omicron Using Different Specimens

• DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.01250-22
• Publication Date: 2022-06-02T13:01:51Z
• Authors: Rafael Mello Galliez; Larissa Bomfim; Diana Mariani; Isabela de Carval...; Anna Carla Pinto ...; Cassia Cristina A...; Bianca Ortiz da S...; Pedro Henrique Ca...; Monica Barcelos A...; Patricia Alvarez; Rodrigo Brindeiro; Victor Akira Ota; Débora Gomes Mari...; Luciana Jesus da ...; Orlando da Costa ...; Terezinha Marta P...; Debora Souza Faffe; Amilcar Tanuri
• Keywords: Concordance; Rapid diagnostic test

Community testing is a crucial tool for the early identification of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and transmission control. The emergence highly mutated Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) raised concerns about its primary site replication, impacting sample collection detectability by rapid antigen tests. We tested performance Panbio diagnostic test (Ag-RDT) using nasal oral specimens COVID-19 diagnosis in 192 symptomatic individuals, with quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (RT-qPCR) nasopharyngeal samples as Variant concern (VOC) investigation was performed 4Plex SARS-CoV-2 screening kit. positivity rate 66.2%, 99% positive showing an amplification profile consistent that variant. Nasal Ag-RDT showed higher sensitivity (89%) than (12.6%) Ag-RDT. Our data good pandemic scenario dominated VOC. Furthermore, our also demonstrated does not provide swabs detection. IMPORTANCE This study COVID19 worked fine when it utilized patients infected variant, concordance PCR 93% tested. swab yielded more reliable results (the test) used