Abstract
Presence of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in serum (viremia) of COVID-19 patients has been related to poor prognosis and death. The aim of this study was to evaluate both the ability to detect viremia in COVID-19 patients of two commercial reverse real-time-PCR (rRT-PCR) tests, Cobas® and TaqPath™, comparing them with a gold standard method, and their implementation in microbiology laboratories. This retrospective cohort study included 303 adult patients (203 diagnosed with COVID-19 and 100 non-COVID-19 patients) admitted to a tertiary hospital, with at least one serum sample collected within the first 48 h from admission. A total of 365 serum samples were included: 100 from non-COVID patients (pre-pandemic and pandemic control groups) and 265 from COVID-19 patients. Serum samples were considered positive when at least one target was detected. All patients in control groups showed negative viremia. Cobas® and TaqPath™ tests showed specificity and Positive Predictive Value over 96%. Nevertheless, sensitivity (53.72 and 73.63, respectively) and Negative Predictive Value (64.78 and 75) were lower. Viremia difference between ICU and non-ICU patients was significant (p ≤ 0.001) for both techniques. Consequently, SARS-CoV-2 viremia detection by both rRT-PCR tests should be considered a good tool to stratify COVID-19 patients and could be implemented in microbiology laboratories.
Keywords: COVID-19; RNA; SARS-CoV-2; Serum; rRT-PCR.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, RNA, serum, rRT-PCR., 【초록키워드】 pandemic, hospital, ICU, Predictive value, serum, sensitivity, specificity, rRT-PCR, Positive predictive value, Viremia, implementation, Patient, death, gold, SARS-CoV-2 RNA, Admission, COVID-19 patients, COVID-19 patient, Negative predictive value, PCR tests, retrospective cohort study, Non-COVID-19 patients, control group, serum samples, gold standard, poor prognosis, non-ICU, control groups, positive, rRT-PCR test, serum sample, negative, value, detect, collected, evaluate, diagnosed with COVID-19, non-ICU patient, Presence, 【제목키워드】 Diagnosis, RT-PCR, SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection,