CONFORMITY TEST OF REAL TIME RT-PCR RESULTS WITH RAPID MOLECULAR TEST MICROARRAY IN DETECTING SARS COV-2 RNA

Abstract

A long turn around time real time RT-PCR is not appropriate with the need for a fast and accurate diagnosis of COVID-19 in this pandemic era. Many commercial rapid molecular tests have been developed, usually in the form of a syndromic panel test that can detect multiple microorganisms including SARS CoV-2, but level of the accuracy is still need to be tested. The aim of this study was to analysis the agreement of real time RT-PCR results with microarray rapid molecular test in detecting RNA SARS CoV-2. This study was a cross sectional study, it was used a stored biological material (nasopharyngeal swab) from COVID-19 patients during May until July 2020. Instrument used were Abbott m2000 real time RT-PCR (Abbott, USA), Vivalytic microarray rapid molecular test (Randox, Germany). The patients consisted of males 56.7%, female 43.3%, mean age was 39.15 ± 12.706, with median age was 35 years old. There was a moderate significant agreement between the results of real time RT-PCR with microarray rapid molecular test (κ=0.411;p<0.05). Real time RT-PCR has better analytical sensitivity and lower detection limits than microarray rapid molecular test. There was no significant correlation between Ct value with the degree of disease severity (correlation coefficient value -0.064;p=0.732). The Ct value can not provide a real picture of the disease severity due to several factors that can affect the Ct value. There was a significant difference between Ct value with rapid molecular test results (p<0.05). A Ct value are associated with microarray rapid molecular results test. According to this results, we conclude that there was a moderate significant agreement between real time RT-PCR results and rapid molecular test in detecting SARS CoV-2, there was no significant correlation between Ct value with the disease severity in COVID-19 patients, there was a correlation between Ct value with positivity of microarray rapid molecular test results.