Background Chronic kidney disease patients show a high mortality in cases of a severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV‑2) infection. Thus, information on the sero-status of nephrology personnel might be crucial for patient protection; however, limited information exists about the presence of SARS-CoV‑2 antibodies in asymptomatic individuals. Methods We examined the seroprevalence of SARS-CoV‑2 IgG and IgM antibodies among healthcare workers of a tertiary care kidney center during the the first peak phase of the corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) crisis in Austria using an orthogonal test strategy and a total of 12 commercial nucleocapsid protein or spike glycoprotein-based assays as well as Western blotting and a neutralization assay. Results At baseline 60 of 235 study participants (25.5%, 95% confidence interval, CI 20.4–31.5%) were judged to be borderline positive or positive for IgM or IgG using a high sensitivity/low specificity threshold in one test system. Follow-up analysis after about 2 weeks revealed IgG positivity in 12 (5.1%, 95% CI: 2.9–8.8%) and IgM positivity in 6 (2.6%, 95% CI: 1.1–5.6) in at least one assay. Of the healthcare workers 2.1% (95% CI: 0.8–5.0%) showed IgG nucleocapsid antibodies in at least 2 assays. By contrast, positive controls with proven COVID-19 showed antibody positivity among almost all test systems. Moreover, serum samples obtained from healthcare workers did not show SARS-CoV‑2 neutralizing capacity, in contrast to positive controls. Conclusion Using a broad spectrum of antibody tests the present study revealed inconsistent results for SARS-CoV‑2 seroprevalence among asymptomatic individuals, while this was not the case among COVID-19 patients. Trial registration number CONEC, ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT04347694 Supplementary Information The online version of this article (10.1007/s00508-021-01848-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
【저자키워드】 coronavirus, pandemic, antibody, serology test, 【초록키워드】 COVID-19, IgG, IgM, Healthcare workers, Mortality, antibody, Seroprevalence, spike glycoprotein, Infection, Chronic kidney disease, healthcare worker, nucleocapsid protein, kidney, specificity, Asymptomatic individuals, IgM antibodies, nucleocapsid, antibody tests, Patient, Kidney disease, neutralizing capacity, Antibody test, respiratory, crisis, threshold, information, Care, COVID-19 patients, SARS-CoV‑2, Coronavirus-2, broad spectrum, IgG and IgM, chronic, Virus Disease, registration number, acute respiratory syndrome, supplementary material, 95% CI, acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus, serum samples, 95% confidence interval, acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2, IgG positivity, Trial Registration Number, positive control, western blotting, positive, Follow-up analysis, serum sample, positive controls, borderline, Result, examined, assays, study participant, baseline, 【제목키워드】 COVID-19, serology, healthcare worker,