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A preliminary study on serological assay for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in 238 admitted hospital patients
- Source :
- Microbes and Infection
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 2020.
-
Abstract
- BackgroundThe outbreak of the recently emerged novel corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) poses a challenge for public health laboratories. We aimed to evaluate the diagnostic value of serological assay for SARS-CoV-2.MethodsA newly-developed ELISA assay for IgM and IgG antibodies against N protein of SARS-CoV-2 were used to screen the serums of 238 admitted hospital patients with confirmed or suspected SARS-CoV-2 infection from February 6 to February 14, 2020. SARS-CoV-2 RNA was detected by real time RT-PCR on pharyngeal swab specimens.FindingsOf the 238 patients, 194 (81.5%) were detected to be antibody (IgM and/or IgG) positive, which was significantly higher than the positive rate of viral RNA (64.3%). There was no difference in the positive rate of antibody between the confirmed patients (83.0%, 127/153) and the suspected patients (78.8%, 67/85) whose nucleic acid tests were negative. After the patients were defined to the different stages of disease based on the day when the test samples were collected, the analysis results showed that the antibody positive rates were very low in the first five days after initial onset of symptoms, and then rapidly increased as the disease progressed. After 10 days, the antibody positive rates jumped to above 80% from less than 50%. On the contrary, the positive rates of viral RNA kept above 60% in the first 11 days after initial onset of symptoms, and then rapidly decreased. In addition, half of the suspected patients with symptoms for 6-10 days were detected to be antibody positive.InterpretationThe suspected patients were most likely infected by SARS-CoV-2. Before the 11th day after initial onset of symptoms, nucleic acid test is important for confirmation of viral infection. The combination of serological assay can greatly improve the diagnostic efficacy. After that, the diagnosis for viral infection should be majorly dependent on serological assay.
- Subjects :
- 0301 basic medicine
Male
Disease
Antibodies, Viral
Gastroenterology
Serology
Diagnosis
Serological assay
medicine.diagnostic_test
biology
Middle Aged
Infectious Diseases
RNA, Viral
Nucleic acid test
Female
Antibody
Coronavirus Infections
Adult
medicine.medical_specialty
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)
030106 microbiology
Immunology
Pneumonia, Viral
Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
Microbiology
Article
03 medical and health sciences
Betacoronavirus
Internal medicine
medicine
Humans
Serologic Tests
Hospital patients
Pandemics
Aged
Inpatients
SARS-CoV-2
business.industry
RNA
COVID-19
Outbreak
biology.organism_classification
030104 developmental biology
Immunoglobulin M
Immunoglobulin G
Nucleic acid
biology.protein
business
Subjects
Details
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Microbes and Infection
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....e4442ee418b167acc29eec8b515f1bc6