Evaluation of droplet digital PCR for quantification of SARS-CoV-2 Virus in discharged COVID-19 patients

• DOI: 10.18632/aging.104020
• Publication Date: 2020-11-01T23:56:13Z
• Authors: Chong Liu; Qingxin Shi; Mingfei Peng; Ruyue Lu; Haohao Li; Yingying Cai; Jiaxi Chen; Jiaqin Xu; Bo Shen
• Keywords: Gold standard (test); Coronavirus; Cut-off; 2019-20 coronavirus outbreak

The worldwide severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) outbreak has led to the rapid spread of disease (COVID-19). quantitative real time PCR (qPCR) is widely used as gold standard for clinical detection SARS-CoV-2. However, more and infected patients are relapsing after discharge, which suggests qPCR may fail detect virus in some cases. In this study, we selected 74 samples from 43 recovering inpatients Droplet Digital (ddPCR) synchronous blind detection, established a cutoff value ddPCR diagnosis COVID-19. results showed that at 0.04 copies/μL, sensitivity specificity 97.6% 100%, respectively. addition, also analyzed 18 retained 9 discharged who relapsed. Although all be negative, 12 positive, there was only one patient with two negative samples; other eight had least positive sample. These indicate could significantly improve accuracy COVID-19 diagnosis, especially low viral load, help reduce misdiagnosis during recovery.