Comparative Analysis of Four Commercial RT-PCR Diagnostic Assay for
Detection of Covid-19
Abstract
SARS-CoV-2 real-time reverse-transcription PCR (rRT-PCR) is currently
the only available yet effective testing system to fight COVID-19
epidemics as far as there’s not any treatment and vaccine. Moreover,
many SARS-CoV-2 rRT-PCR kits are approved by the
emergency-use-authorization (EUA) altogether over the world. In this
article we’ve provided a comparison of important performance features of
four commercial RT-PCR assays. A total of consecutive nasopharyngeal
(NPS) samples and oropharyngeal (OP) swabs were collected from 50
COVID-19 patients for sensitivity and specificity analysis. Specificity
of these assays were examined by using extractions of RNA from common
human coronavirus cultures. All RT-PCR kits including in this study
exhibited acceptable specificity over 90%, except for the Sansure and
PowerCheck (88%). Pishtaz teb assays demonstrated a PPA of 95.24%
(40/42), while the DaAn Gene, Sansure, Power check of SARS-CoV-2 panel
showed the PPA of 85.7% (36/42), 66.66% (28/42), and 64.3% (27/42),
respectively. An NPA of 100% (8/8) was observed for four molecular
assays. This study gives a technical baseline of four distinct
commercial PCR assays for detection of SARS-CoV-2, that can be practical
and useful for laboratories interested in buying any of them for more
clinical validation.