1. SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleocapsid assay performance in healthcare workers at baseline and 6 months
- Author
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Niamh Allen, Jean Dunne, Colm Bergin, Martina Kelly, Brendan M. Crowley, Yvonne Lynagh, Fiona O'Rourke, Colm Kerr, Gerry Hughes, and Niall Conlon
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Health Personnel ,Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) ,030106 microbiology ,Assay ,Antibodies, Viral ,Roche Diagnostics ,Sensitivity and Specificity ,Serology ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Seroepidemiologic Studies ,Internal medicine ,medicine ,Humans ,Seroprevalence ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Antibody ,biology ,SARS-CoV-2 ,business.industry ,Brief Report ,Significant difference ,COVID-19 ,Anti-nucleocapsid ,General Medicine ,Abbott Diagnostics ,Immunoglobulin G ,biology.protein ,business - Abstract
Introduction Serological SARS-CoV-2 assays have an important role in guiding the pandemic response. This research aimed to compare the performance of 2 antinucleocapsid assays. Methods Serum from 49 HCWs was analysed at baseline and 6 months using the Abbott diagnostics SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay and the Roche Diagnostics Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 total antibody assay. Results At baseline, 14/49 participants (29%) demonstrated antibody reactivity using the Abbott assay. At 6 months, 4/14 participants (29%) continued to demonstrate reactivity. A total of 14/49 (29%) participants had detectable antibodies at baseline using the Roche assay. In total, 13/14 (93%) of participants demonstrated antibody reactivity at 6 months. The Abbott assay showed a statistically significant difference in the signal-to-threshold values of baseline reactive samples when repeated at 6 months (p = 0.001). This was not seen with the Roche assay (p = 0.51). Conclusion In this small study, the Roche Diagnostics Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 total antibody assay appears superior in performance to the Abbott diagnostics SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay in accurately detecting participants with a history of confirmed COVID-19 disease at 6 months follow-up. This finding should be born in mind in the planning of future seroprevalence studies, especially when considering the use of anti-nucleocapsid assays.
- Published
- 2021