📄 Evaluation of reverse transcription-PCR assays for rapid diagnosis of severe acute respiratory syndrome associated with a novel coronavirus

The reverse transcription (RT)-PCR protocols of two World Health Organization (WHO) severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) network laboratories (WHO SARS network laboratories at The University of Hong Kong [WHO-HKU] and at the Bernhard-Nocht Institute in Hamburg, Germany [WHO-Hamburg]) were evaluated for rapid diagnosis of a novel coronavirus (CoV) associated with SARS in Hong Kong. A total of 303 clinical specimens were collected from 163 patients suspected to have SARS. The end point of both WHO-HKU and WHO-Hamburg RT-PCR assays was determined to be 0.1 50% tissue culture infective dose. Using seroconversion to CoV as the "gold standard" for SARS CoV diagnosis, WHO-HKU and WHO-Hamburg RT-PCR assays exhibited diagnostic sensitivities of 61 and 68% (nasopharyngeal aspirate specimens), 65 and 72% (throat swab specimens), 50 and 54% (urine specimens), and 58 and 63% (stool specimens), respectively, with an overall specificity of 100%. For patients confirmed to have SARS CoV and from whom two or more respiratory specimens were collected, testing the second specimen increased the sensitivity from 64 and 71% to 75 and 79% for the WHO-HKU and WHO-Hamburg RT-PCR assays, respectively. Testing more than one respiratory specimen will maximize the sensitivity of PCR assays for SARS CoV.

keywords 🔗 severe acute (1373) 🔗 tissue culture (67) 🔗 reverse transcription (205) 🔗 novel coronavirus (684) 🔗 clinical specimens (44) 🔗 respiratory syndrome (2004) 🔗 acute respiratory (1734) 🔗 throat swab (43) 🔗 nasopharyngeal aspirate (38)

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