Development of a high sensitivity RT-PCR assay for detection of SARS-CoV-2 in individual and pooled nasopharyngeal samples.

The COVID-19 pandemic requires sensitive detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus from samples to ensure accurate detection of infected patients, an essential component of effective national track and trace programs. Due to the scaling challenges of large sample numbers, sample pooling is an attractive solution to reduce both extraction and amplification reagent costs, if high sensitivity can be maintained. We demonstrate that the Erba Molecular ErbaMDx SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR Kit (EM kit) delivers high sensitivity, achieving analytical detection of 5 copies/reaction SARS-CoV-2 genomic RNA, and 200 copies/mL SARS-CoV-2 inactivated virus spiked into nasopharyngeal swab (NP) samples and extracted through workflow.

Alternative tests versus measurement of fasting plasma glucose and oral glucose tolerance test for diagnosis of pediatric type 2 pre-diabetes: a systematic review protocol.

The gold standard for the diagnosis of pre-diabetes is the measurement of fasting plasma glucose and the oral glucose tolerance test. The objective of this systematic review is to identify all alternative tests currently in use for the diagnosis of type 2 pre-diabetes mellitus in children and establish their accuracy relative to this gold standard.