ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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Ahead of Print |
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Performance evaluation of Truenat™ Beta CoV & Truenat™ SARS-CoV-2 point-of-care assays for coronavirus disease 2019
Shantala Gowdara Basawarajappa1, Ambica Rangaiah1, Shashiraja Padukone1, Pragya D. Yadav2, Nivedita Gupta3, Sathyanarayan Muthur Shankar1
1 Department of Microbiology, Bangalore Medical College & Research Institute, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India 2 Maximum Containment Laboratory, ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune, Maharashtra, India 3 Division of Epidemiology & Communicable Diseases, Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi, India
Correspondence Address:
Sathyanarayan Muthur Shankar, Department of Microbiology, Bangalore Medical College & Research Institute, KR Road, Fort, Bengaluru 560 002, Karnataka India
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None DOI: DOI: 10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_2363_20 PMID: 33146156
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Background & objectives: The rapid diagnosis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a significant step towards the containment of the virus. The surge of COVID-19 cases in India and across the globe necessitates a rapid and sensitive molecular assay. Rapid point-of-care (PoC) assays (Truenat Beta CoV and Truenat SARS-CoV-2 assays) for the diagnosis of COVID-19 have been developed which are expected to shorten the turnaround time of reporting of results and also can be used for field investigations of COVID-19. The objectives of the study were to validate the performance of Truenat Beta CoV and Truenat SARS-CoV-2 PoC assays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 infected cases with reference to analytical sensitivity, precision/inter-machine variation, clinical sensitivity and clinical specificity.
Methods: The rapid PoC screening and confirmatory assays were prospectively validated at the State Level Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory at Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, Bengaluru, under technical supervision by the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV), Pune. Real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR)was considered as the reference standard against which the rapid assays were validated for all samples tested based on analytical sensitivity, precision/inter-machine variation, clinical sensitivity and clinical specificity.
Results: Truenat Beta CoV and Truenat SARS-CoV-2 assays showed concordant results when compared with the reference standard rRT-PCR. These PoC assays exhibited 100 per cent sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value.
Interpretation & conclusions: Truenat Beta CoV and Truenat SARS-CoV-2 assays showed concordance with the reference standard assay and may be recommended for screening and confirmation of SARS-CoV-2 in the field settings. |
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