Performance study of the anterior nasal AMP SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test in comparison with nasopharyngeal rRT-PCR.

Introduction: The gold standard for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection is real-time reverse transcription PCR (rRT-PCR), which is expensive, has a long turnaround time and requires special equipment and trained personnel. Nasopharyngeal swabs are uncomfortable, not suitable for certain patient groups and do not allow self-testing. Convenient, well-tolerated rapid antigen tests (RATs) for SARS-CoV-2 detection are called for.

Evaluation of the AMP SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test in a hospital setting.

Objectives: Quick and inexpensive SARS-CoV-2 screening and frontline testing are in growing demand. Our study aimed to evaluate the performance of the immunochromatographic AMP rapid antigen test (AMP RAT) compared to the gold-standard real-time reverse transcription PCR (rRT-PCR) in a hospital cohort.

Methods: A total of 392 patients, who presented consecutively with COVID-19 symptoms in our emergency department, were included in this retrospective study.