Soon after Abbott completed the delivery of 150 million rapid antigen tests to the federal government for widespread distribution in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published a study stating that card-based diagnostics may not be infectious Approximately two-thirds of asymptomatic cases.
The study was conducted with local health officials in Pima County, Arizona, surrounding Tucson City. The study collected paired samples from more than 3,400 adults and adolescents. One swab was tested using Abbott’s BinaxNOW test, while the other was processed using a PCR-based molecular test.
Among those who tested positive, the researchers found that the antigen test correctly detected COVID-19 infections in 35.8% of those who did not report any symptoms, and 64.2% of those who said they felt unwell in the first two weeks .
However, different types of coronavirus tests cannot be designed exactly the same in various environments and conditions, and may vary according to the screened objects and the time of use. As Abbott (Abbott) pointed out in a statement, its tests performed better at finding people with the most infectious and disease-transmitting potential (or samples containing live cultivable viruses).
The company pointed out that “BinaxNOW is very good at detecting infectious populations,” which points to positive participants. The test identified 78.6% of people who can cultivate the virus but asymptomatic and 92.6% of people with symptoms.
The immunoassay test is completely contained in a paper booklet the size of a credit card with a cotton swab inserted and mixed with the droplets in the reagent bottle. A series of colored lines appeared to provide positive, negative or invalid results.
The CDC study found that the BinaxNOW test is also more accurate. Among symptomatic participants who reported signs of the disease in the past 7 days, the sensitivity was 71.1%, which is one of the authorized uses of the test approved by the FDA. At the same time, Abbott’s own clinical data showed that the sensitivity of the same group of patients was 84.6%.
The company said: “Equally important, these data show that if the patient has no symptoms and the result is negative, BinaxNOW will give the correct answer 96.9% of the time,” the company refers to the specificity measurement of the test.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) agreed with the assessment, saying that rapid antigen testing has a lower false-positive result rate (although there are limitations compared to laboratory-run PCR tests) due to its ease of use and rapid processing Time and low cost are still an important screening tool. Production and operation.
The researchers said: “People who know a positive test result within 15 to 30 minutes can be quarantined faster and can initiate contact tracking earlier and are more effective than returning the test result a few days later.” “Antigen test is more effective.” Fast turnaround time can help limit spread by identifying infected people to be quarantined faster, especially when used as part of a serial testing strategy.”
Abbott said last month that it plans to start offering BinaxNOW tests directly for commercial purchases for use at home and on-site by healthcare providers, and plans to deliver another 30 million BinaxNOW tests by the end of March, and another 90 million to At the end of June.
Post time: Feb-25-2021