ReviewEuro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin2020
Estimating the false-negative test probability of SARS-CoV-2 by RT-PCR.
Review in Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 169 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
169 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 258 citations in OpenAlex.
- The potential of circulating microRNAs as novel diagnostic biomarkers of COVID-19: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Pooled it
- Estimate false-negative RT-PCR rates for SARS-CoV-2. A systematic review and meta-analysis.European journal of clinical investigation · 2022Pooled it
- Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Diagnostic Tests for Border Screening During the Very Early Phase of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Epidemiological, Radiographical, and Laboratorial Characteristics of Chinese Asymptomatic Cases With COVID-19: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2022Pooled it
- Diagnostic performance of COVID-19 serological assays during early infection: A systematic review and meta-analysis of 11 516 samples.Influenza and other respiratory viruses · 2021Pooled it
- Kawasaki-like disease in children with COVID-19.Rheumatology international · 2020Pooled it
- At what times during infection is SARS-CoV-2 detectable and no longer detectable using RT-PCR-based tests? A systematic review of individual participant data.BMC medicine · 2020Pooled it
- The incidence of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 among asymptomatic patients: A systematic review.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2020Pooled it
- A systematic review of CT chest in COVID-19 diagnosis and its potential application in a surgical setting.Colorectal disease : the official journal of the Association of Coloproctology of Great Britain and Ireland · 2020Pooled it
- A multi-country phase 2 study to evaluate the suitcase lab for rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 in seven Sub-Saharan African countries: Lessons from the field.Journal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology · 2023Trial
- Diagnostic accuracy of self-collected anterior nasal swabs for SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR testing.Microbiology spectrum · 2026Article
- Hidden SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Infections in Young Children: What Routine Tests Do Not Tell.International archives of otorhinolaryngology · 2026Article
- Exploring the influence of vitamin C concentrations on the dynamics of RT-PCR assay reactions.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Development of Novel ssDNA Aptamers for Detection of Receptor-Binding Domain of SARS-COV‑2.ACS omega · 2025Article
- Cardiac Tamponade in a Suspected COVID-19 Patient.Cureus · 2025Article
- Learn from the SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid test to increase the experience of dealing with the "disease X ".BMC infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Detecting Monkeypox Virus by Immunohistochemistry.Journal of cutaneous pathology · 2025Article
- A cross-sectional study on the long-term impact of COVID-19: Symptoms, disability and daily functioning.Health SA = SA Gesondheid · 2025Article
- Comparative analysis of frequentist, Bayesian, and machine learning models for predicting SARS-CoV-2 PCR positivity.Frontiers in artificial intelligence · 2025Article
- Observational
109 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BackgroundReverse-transcription PCR (RT-PCR) assays are used to test for infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. RT-PCR tests are highly specific and the probability of false positives is low, but false negatives are possible depending on swab type and time since symptom onset.AimTo determine how the probability of obtaining a false-negative test in infected patients is affected by time since symptom onset and swab type.MethodsWe used generalised additive mixed models to analyse publicly available data from patients who received multiple RT-PCR tests and were identified as SARS-CoV-2 positive at least once.ResultsThe probability of a positive test decreased with time since symptom onset, with oropharyngeal (OP) samples less likely to yield a positive result than nasopharyngeal (NP) samples. The probability of incorrectly identifying an uninfected individual due to a false-negative test was considerably reduced if negative tests were repeated 24 hours later. For a small false-positive test probability (<0.5%), the true number of infected individuals was larger than the number of positive tests. For a higher false-positive test probability, the true number of infected individuals was smaller than the number of positive tests.ConclusionNP samples are more sensitive than OP samples. The later an infected individual is tested after symptom onset, the less likely they are to test positive. This has implications for identifying infected patients, contact tracing and discharging convalescing patients who are potentially still infectious.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.