Evaluation of COVID-19 Antigen Fluorescence Immunoassay Test for Rapid Detection of SARS-CoV-2

Kiro, Vandana Vijayeta; Gupta, Ankesh; Singh, Parul; Sharad, Neha; Khurana, Surbhi; Prakash, S; Dar, Lalit; Malhotra, Rajesh; Wig, Naveet; Kumar, Arvind; Trikha, Anjan; Mathur, Purva

INTRODUCTION: Tests detecting SARS-CoV-2-specific antigen have recently been developed, and many of them are now commercially available. However, the real-world performance of these assays is uncertain; therefore, their validation is important. In this study, we have evaluated the performance of STANDARD F COVID-19 antigen fluorescence immunoassay (FIA) kit. METHODS: Nasopharyngeal samples collected from patients were subjected to the test as per manufacturer's instructions. The performance of the kit was compared with the gold standard real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: A total of 354 patients were tested with STANDARD F COVID-19 antigen FIA test kit. The overall sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value of this test were found to be 38%, 99%, 96.2%, and 72%, respectively, with a diagnostic accuracy of 75.7%. CONCLUSION: STANDARD F COVID-19 antigen FIA showed high specificity and positive predictive value but low sensitivity and negative predictive value.