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Review
. 2021 May:516:1-7.
doi: 10.1016/j.cca.2021.01.011. Epub 2021 Jan 21.

rRT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2: Analytical considerations

Rezgar Rahbari  1 , Nariman Moradi  2 , Mohammad Abdi  3
Affiliations
Review

rRT-PCR for SARS-CoV-2: Analytical considerations

Rezgar Rahbari et al. Clin Chim Acta. 2021 May.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic remains a significant problem involving health systems worldwide. Accurate and early detection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection is critical for minimizing spread and initiating treatment. Among test methods, real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase-chain-reaction (rRT-PCR) is considered the gold standard. Although this test has high specificity and relatively high sensitivity, the occurrence of falsely negative results in symptomatic patients and/or having a positive CT scan remains a challenge. Sources of error can be pre-analytical (sampling, storage and processing), analytical (RNA extraction, cDNA synthesis and amplification) and post-analytical (interpretation and analysis and test reporting). These potential sources of error and efforts to mitigate are reviewed in this article with an emphasis on the analytical phase.

Keywords: COVID-19; Laboratory errors; SARS-CoV-2; rRT-PCR method.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A summarized illustration showing the most important causes which create false results in SARS-CoV-2 molecular diagnosis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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