%0 Journal Article
%A Neukam, Karin
%A Lucero, Alicia
%A Gutiérrez-Valencia, Alicia
%A Amaya, Lucas
%A Echegoyen, Natalia
%A Martelli, Antonella
%A Videla, Cristina
%A Di Lello, Federico A
%A Martínez, Alfredo P
%T Point-of-care detection of SARS-CoV-2 antigen among symptomatic vs. asymptomatic persons: Testing for COVID-19 vs. infectivity.
%D 2022
%U http://hdl.handle.net/10668/20741
%X Management of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic caused by a novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) requires rapid and simple methods to detect COVID-19 patients and identify potential infectors. This study aimed to evaluate the utility of a point-of-care (PoC) rapid antigen diagnostic test (Ag-RDT) in these settings. Individuals who consecutively presented for SARS-CoV-2 testing at a tertiary care center in Buenos Aires, Argentina, underwent PoC Ag-RDT testing and real-time RT-PCR (qRT-PCR) on the same day during June 2021. Of 584 included subjects, 108 (18.5%) were symptomatic for COVID-19 while the remaining presented for miscellaneous reasons unrelated to possible or confirmed contact with a SARS-CoV-2-infected individual. A positive Ag-RDT result was obtained in 26 (24.1%) symptomatic and 7 (1.5%) asymptomatic persons (p  PoC Ag-RDT accurately detected active SARS-CoV-2 infection and showed acceptable diagnostic performance in asymptomatic persons potentially spreading infectious virus. Ag-RDT may therefore be useful to slow down or stop transmission by enabling adequate decisions on isolation at a public health level.
%K COVID-19
%K PCR
%K SARS-CoV-2
%K point-of-care
%K public health
%K rapid antigen testing
%K surveillance
%K viral kinetics
%~