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Using Prenatal Blood Samples to Evaluate COVID-19 Rapid Serologic Tests Specificity.

Authors :
Alger J
Cafferata ML
Alvarado T
Ciganda A
Corrales A
Desale H
Drouin A
Fusco D
Garcia J
Gibbons L
Harville E
Lopez W
Lorenzana I
Muñoz-Lara F
Palou E
Retes E
Sierra M
Stella C
Xiong X
Zambrano LI
Buekens P
Source :
Maternal and child health journal [Matern Child Health J] 2020 Sep; Vol. 24 (9), pp. 1099-1103.
Publication Year :
2020

Abstract

Introduction: Background cross-reactivity with other coronaviruses may reduce the specificity of COVID-19 rapid serologic tests. The vast majority of women attend prenatal care, which is a unique source of population-based blood samples appropriate for validation studies. We used stored 2018 serum samples from an existing pregnancy cohort study to evaluate the specificity of COVID-19 serologic rapid diagnostic tests.<br />Methods: We randomly selected 120 stored serum samples from pregnant women enrolled in a cohort in 2018 in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, at least 1 year before the COVID-19 pandemic. We used stored serum to evaluate four lateral flow rapid diagnostic tests, following manufacturers' instructions. Pictures were taken for all tests and read by two blinded trained evaluators.<br />Results: We evaluated 120, 80, 90, and 90 samples, respectively. Specificity for both IgM and IgG was 100% for the first two tests (95% confidence intervals [CI] 97.0-100 and 95.5-100, respectively). The third test had a specificity of 98.9% (95% CI 94.0-100) for IgM and 94.4% (95% CI 87.5-98.2) for IgG. The fourth test had a specificity of 88.9% (95% CI 80.5-94.5) for IgM and 100% (95% CI 96.0-100) for IgG.<br />Discussion: COVID-19 serologic rapid tests are of variable specificity. Blood specimens from sentinel prenatal clinics provide an opportunity to validate serologic tests with population-based samples.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1573-6628
Volume :
24
Issue :
9
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Maternal and child health journal
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
32671537
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10995-020-02981-9