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Although real-time reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) is the gold standard for diagnosing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), simpler and faster antibody detection tests can be complementary for diagnosis of COVID-19. To manage the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for serologic testing has increased. In this report, the newly developed antibody detection assays ACCEL ELISA COVID-19 (ACCEL) and Elecsys anti-SARS-CoV-2 (Elecsys) were evaluated.Serum samples submitted for routine laboratory testing were analyzed (66 and 161 PCR-positive and PCR-negative samples). After the samples were aliquoted, antibody detection tests were performed using ACCEL and Elecsys assays.When detection of viral RNA using RT-PCR was set as the reference method for diagnosis of COVID-19, the sensitivity was 83.3% and 75.8, and the specificity was 96.9 and 99.4% in ACCEL and Elecsys, respectively. The true positivity rates of ACCEL and Elecsys assays were 57.1%/42.9%, 57.1%/28.6%, 77.8%/66.7%, and 97.1%/97.1% among the specimens collected ≤3, 4-7, 8-14, and14 days after symptom onset, respectively.The ACCEL assay showed high sensitivity in samples collected within 7 days after symptom onset. Because many patients are asymptomatic in the early stage of SARS-CoV-2 infection, the ACCEL assay could be a good screening tool due to high sensitivity in the early stage of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The amount of heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (FABP3) in cardiomyocytes may affect the prognosis of patients with coronary atherosclerosis. In this study, we examined whether single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the FABP3 gene were prognostic factors in patients with coronary atherosclerosis. We enrolled 100 patients with myocardial infarction and coronary atherosclerosis and 100 healthy individuals to assess the genotypes of four SNPs of the FABP3 gene (RS2271072, RS16834408, RS2279885, and RS10914367). The MI patients with coronary atherosclerosis exhibited a higher frequency (16%) of the C/G-G/G haplotype of RS2271072 and RS10914367 than healthy individuals (7%). Koreans with the C/G-G/G haplotype for these SNPs had a higher risk of MI than did Koreans with the G/G-A/A haplotype. We calculated an odds ratio of 2.83 (95% confidence interval: 1.01-7.96). In conclusion, the C/G-G/G haplotype at RS2271072 and RS10914367 SNPs of FABP3 might be a prognostic factor in patients with coronary atherosclerosis.

The diagnosis of Kawasaki disease (KD) is based on clinical data and non-pathognomonic symptoms. As no specific diagnostic test for KD exists, BNP or NT-pro-BNP might be of importance in identifying KD. We compared serum hs-CRP and NT-pro-BNP level in the acute phase of 59 KD patients and evaluated the diagnostic performance of these laboratory markers in KD to estimate the cut-off level for differentiating KD from other febrile illnesses as age-matched controls.The study groups consisted of 59 KD patients in the disease group and 45 other patients with febrile illnesses as age-matched controls. NT-pro-BNP was measured using Elecsys proBNP (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany), and hs-CRP was tested with CardioPhase hs-CRP (Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics, Marburg, Germany).NT-pro-BNP levels were significantly higher in the KD patients than in the controls (P0.001). In the ROC curve analysis, the sensitivity was 66.10%, and the specificity was 77.08% at 235.2 pg/mL. hs-CRP levels tended to be higher in KD patients compared to controls.This study indicates that NT-pro-BNP might be a more useful laboratory marker as an adjuvant diagnostic tool for KD than hs-CRP. Especially in a patient with incomplete clinical features of KD, the diagnosis and the start of treatment were delayed to confirm a fever persisting for at least 5 days. Therefore, we expect that NT-pro- BNP would be especially useful for KD patients with these atypical clinical presentations.