rRT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2: Analytical considerations

•We summarized the most important errors which may happen during nucleic acid tests for detection of SARS-CoV-2.•We explored the errors in three different analytic phases.•We showed that most important sources of error occurred during pre-analytic phase. The COVID-19 pandemic remains a significant p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinica chimica acta 2021-05, Vol.516, p.1-7
Main Authors: Rahbari, Rezgar, Moradi, Nariman, Abdi, Mohammad
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
COVID-19
Humans
Laboratory errors
Research Design
Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction - methods
Review
rRT-PCR method
SARS-CoV-2
SARS-CoV-2 - genetics
SARS-CoV-2 - isolation & purification
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Summary:•We summarized the most important errors which may happen during nucleic acid tests for detection of SARS-CoV-2.•We explored the errors in three different analytic phases.•We showed that most important sources of error occurred during pre-analytic phase. The COVID-19 pandemic remains a significant problem involving health systems worldwide. Accurate and early detection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is critical for minimizing spread and initiating treatment. Among test methods, real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase-chain-reaction (rRT-PCR) is considered the gold standard. Although this test has high specificity and relatively high sensitivity, the occurrence of falsely negative results in symptomatic patients and/or having a positive CT scan remains a challenge. Sources of error can be pre-analytical (sampling, storage and processing), analytical (RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis and amplification) and post-analytical (interpretation and analysis and test reporting). These potential sources of error and efforts to mitigate are reviewed in this article with an emphasis on the analytical phase.
ISSN:0009-8981
1873-3492
DOI:10.1016/j.cca.2021.01.011