ArticleJournal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology2023
Converting to an international unit system improves harmonization of results for SARS-CoV-2 quantification: Results from multiple external quality assessments.
Article in Journal of clinical virology : the official publication of the Pan American Society for Clinical Virology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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The trial behind it
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 8 citations in OpenAlex.
- Behind the scenes of EQA – characteristics, capabilities, benefits and assets of external quality assessment (EQA): Part V – Benefits for stakeholders other than participantsClinical chemistry and laboratory medicine · 2025Review
- Analytical validation of a semi-automated methodology for quantitative measurement of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in wastewater collected in northern New England.Microbiology spectrum · 2024Article
- Internationally standardized respiratory viral load testing with limited resources: A derivative-of-care calibration strategy for SARS-CoV-2.Influenza and other respiratory viruses · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
13 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe detection of SARS-CoV-2 vRNA in clinical samples has relied almost exclusively on RT-qPCR as the gold standard test. Published results from various external quality assessments ("ring trials") worldwide have shown that there is still a large variability in results reported for the same samples. As reference standards of SARS-CoV-2 RNA are available, we tested whether using standard curves to convert Ct values into copies/mL (cp/mL) improved harmonization.
methodsNine laboratories using 23 test systems (15 of which were unique) prepared standard dilution curves to convert C
resultsReporting results as IU/mL improved the precision of the estimated concentrations of all samples compared to reporting Ct values, although some inaccuracy remained. Variance analysis showed that nearly all variability in data was explained by individual test systems within individual laboratories. When controlling for this effect, there was no significant difference between all other factors tested (test systems, EQA rounds, sample material).
conclusionsConverting results to copies/mL improved precision across laboratory test systems. However, it seems the results are still very specific to test systems within laboratories. Further efforts could be made to improve accuracy and achieve full harmonization across diagnostic laboratories.
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Registered trials
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