Neukam, KarinLucero, AliciaGutiérrez-Valencia, AliciaAmaya, LucasEchegoyen, NataliaMartelli, AntonellaVidela, CristinaDi Lello, Federico AMartínez, Alfredo P2023-05-032023-05-032022-10-17http://hdl.handle.net/10668/20741Management 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.enAttribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/COVID-19PCRSARS-CoV-2point-of-carepublic healthrapid antigen testingsurveillanceviral kineticsHumansCOVID-19SARS-CoV-2COVID-19 TestingPoint-of-Care SystemsRNA, ViralSensitivity and Specificityresearch article36324442open access10.3389/fpubh.2022.9952492296-2565PMC9619045https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2022.995249/pdfhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9619045/pdf