ArticleClinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases2023
Sars-Cov-2 antigen tests predict infectivity based on viral culture: comparison of antigen, PCR viral load, and viral culture testing on a large sample cohort.
Article in Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT05884515 (Community Study to Evaluate the Performance of COVID-19 Frequent Antigen Testing at Home Through Digital Health Reporting), which is not on this map. Cited by 27 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
Community Study to Evaluate the Performance of COVID-19 Frequent Antigen Testing at Home Through Digital Health Reporting
Who cites it
27 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clinical accuracy of instrument-based SARS-CoV-2 antigen diagnostic tests: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Virology journal · 2024Pooled it
- Predicting the presence of infectious virus from PCR data: A meta-analysis of SARS-CoV-2 in non-human primates.PLoS pathogens · 2024Pooled it
- Accuracy of rapid point-of-care antigen-based diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2: An updated systematic review and meta-analysis with meta-regression analyzing influencing factors.PLoS medicine · 2022Pooled it
- Can self-testing be enhanced to hasten safe return of healthcare workers in pandemics? Random order, open label trial using two manufacturers' SARS-CoV-2 lateral flow devices concurrently and nested viral culture study.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Trial
- SARS-CoV-2 viral dynamics in a placebo-controlled phase 2 study of patients infected with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant and treated with pomotrelvir.Microbiology spectrum · 2024Trial
- Cu-MOF-NHMikrochimica acta · 2026Article
- Burden of Acute Respiratory Infections Caused by Influenza Virus, Respiratory Syncytial Virus, and SARS-CoV-2 with Consideration of Older Adults: A Narrative Review.Infectious diseases and therapy · 2025Review
- On-site detection of MERS-CoV infections in a camel slaughterhouse in Kenya using a commercial rapid antigen test.Frontiers in veterinary science · 2025Article
- The ratio between SARS-CoV-2 RNA viral load and culturable viral titre differs depending on the stage of infection: a case study of household transmission in an adult male.Access microbiology · 2025Article
- Article
- SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid detection tests: test performance during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of COVID-19 vaccination.EBioMedicine · 2024Article
- COVID-19 and Cancer Care: A Review and Practical Guide to Caring for Cancer Patients in the Era of COVID-19.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2024Review
- Review
- Testing for SARS-CoV-2: lessons learned and current use cases.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2024Review
- Screening Strategies to Reduce COVID-19 Mortality in Nursing Homes.JAMA health forum · 2024Article
- The New Normal: Delayed Peak SARS-CoV-2 Viral Loads Relative to Symptom Onset and Implications for COVID-19 Testing Programs.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2024Article
- In Support of Universal Admission Testing for SARS-CoV-2 During Significant Community Transmission.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2024Article
- A population-based study of the trend in SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic modalities from the beginning of the pandemic to the Omicron surge in Kyoto City, Kyoto, Japan.BMC public health · 2023Observational
- The evaluation of a rapid microfluidic immunofluorescence antigen test in detecting the infectiousness of COVID-19 patients.BMC infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Daily SARS-CoV-2 Nasal Antigen Tests Miss Infected and Presumably Infectious People Due to Viral Load Differences among Specimen Types.Microbiology spectrum · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo define the relationship of SARS-CoV-2 antigen, viral load determined by RT-qPCR, and viral culture detection. Presumptively, viral culture can provide a surrogate measure for infectivity of sampled individuals and thereby inform how and where to most appropriately deploy antigen and nucleic acid amplification-based diagnostic testing modalities.
methodsWe compared the antigen testing results from three lateral flow and one microfluidics assay to viral culture detection and viral load determination performed in parallel in up to 189 nasopharyngeal swab samples positive for SARS-CoV-2. Sample viral loads, determined by RT-qPCR, were distributed across the range of viral load values observed in our testing population.
resultsAntigen tests were predictive of viral culture positivity, with the LumiraDx microfluidics method showing enhanced sensitivity (90%; 95% CI 83-94%) compared with the BD Veritor (74%, 95% CI 65-81%), CareStart (74%, 95% CI 65-81%) and Oscar Corona (74%, 95% CI 65-82%) lateral flow antigen tests. Antigen and viral culture positivity were also highly correlated with sample viral load, with areas under the receiver operator characteristic curves of 0.94 to 0.97 and 0.92, respectively. A viral load threshold of 100 000 copies/mL was 95% sensitive (95% CI, 90-98%) and 72% specific (95% CI, 60-81%) for predicting viral culture positivity. Adjusting for sample dilution inherent in our study design, sensitivities of antigen tests were ≥95% for detection of viral culture positive samples with viral loads >10 DISCUSSION: Antigen testing results and viral culture were correlated. For culture positive samples, the sensitivity of antigen tests was high at high viral loads that are likely associated with significant infectivity. Therefore, our data provides support for use of antigen testing in ruling out infectivity at the time of sampling.
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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.