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Volume 27, Number 1—January 2021
Research

Performance of Nucleic Acid Amplification Tests for Detection of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in Prospectively Pooled Specimens

Hannah Wang, Catherine A. Hogan, Jacob A. Miller, Malaya K. Sahoo, ChunHong Huang, Kenji O. Mfuh, Mamdouh Sibai, James Zehnder, Brendan Hickey, Nasa Sinnott-Armstrong, and Benjamin A. PinskyComments to Author 
Author affiliations: Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA (H. Wang, C.A. Hogan, J.A. Miller, M.K. Sahoo, C. Huang, J. Zehnder, N. Sinnott-Armstrong, B.A. Pinsky); Stanford Health Care, Stanford (K.O. Mfuh, M. Sibai, B.A. Pinsky); Stanford University, Stanford (N. Sinnott-Armstrong)

Main Article

Table 1

Performance of nucleic acid amplification tests for detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 in prospectively pooled specimens, by testing platform*

Test name Gene target(s) Internal control Method Strategy Reference
LDT Envelope RNase P rRT-PCR Pools of 8†, pools of 4† (1,14–16)
Panther Fusion ORF1ab Reagent spike-in rRT-PCR Pools of 8†, pools of 5†, pools of 3‡ (17)
Panther Aptima-M ORF1ab Reagent spike-in TMA Pools of 8 with manufacturer-set RLU cutoff† (18)
Panther Aptima-350 ORF1ab Reagent spike-in TMA Pools of 8 with RLU cutoff of >350†§ (18)

*Panther Aptima-M, Panther Aptima with manufacturer-set relative light unit cutoff value; Panther Aptima-350, Panther Aptima with relative light unit cutoff value >350 considered positive. Both products were from Hologic (https://www.hologic.com). LDT, laboratory-developed test; ORF1ab, open reading frame 1ab; rRT-PCR, real-time reverse transcription PCR; RLU, relative light unit; TMA, transcription-mediated amplification.

†Pooled testing strategy was assessed empirically at Stanford Clinical Virology Laboratory, with individual samples evaluated by LDT.

‡Pooled testing strategy assessed by in silico sensitivity analysis, with individual samples evaluated by Panther Fusion.

§Panther Aptima RLU cutoff of 350 selected based on receiver operating characteristic curve (Appendix Figure 1).

Main Article

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Page created: September 29, 2020
Page updated: December 21, 2020
Page reviewed: December 21, 2020
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