COMPARISON OF SARS CoV-2 RT-PCR TEST WITH RAPID ANTIGEN DETECTION KIT AND OTHER NON SPECIFIC TEST

Background: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) is responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic causing respiratory illness worldwide. Hence there is an urgent need for simple, rapid, and accurate tests for diagnosis. Performance characteristic of Rapid Antigen detection test for identifying sensitivity and specificity with gold standard Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction and correlate the significance of non-specific parameters like CRP(C- Reactive Protein), IL-6(Interleukin-6), Procalcitonin for diagnosis of COVID-19. Methods: The Rapid Antigen Detection test was compared with Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction to detect SARS CoV-2 in respiratory specimens. 100 respiratory samples (mainly nasopharyngeal and throat swab) and for CRP, IL6, and Procalcitonin serum samples were obtained from COVID-19 suspected cases, mostly in-patients at Saveetha Medical College from April 2021- to September 2021. Results: Out of 100 samples, 67% were positive, 33% were negative for SARS-CoV2 RNA by RT-PCR assay. When compared with Rapid Antigen Test, the RT-PCR test showed 83.8% sensitivity and 59.3% specificity, while non-specific parameters correlation in diagnosis of COVID-19 showed CRP insignificant, IL-6 and Procalcitonin significant. Conclusion: RT-PCR is considered the standard gold method for diagnosing COVID-19. On comparing RT-PCR with other non-specific tests like CRP, Procalcitonin, IL-6 showed Procalcitonin and IL-6 can be considered non-specific tests for diagnosing COVID-19.