Occurrence and Timing of Subsequent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Reverse-transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction Positivity Among Initially Negative Patients
Dustin R. Long, Saurabh Gombar, Catherine A. Hogan, Alexander L. Greninger, Vikas N. O’Reilly-Shah, Chloe Bryson‐Cahn, Bryan Stevens, Arjun Rustagi, Keith R. Jerome, Christina S. Kong, James L. Zehnder, Nigam H. Shah, Noel S. Weiss, Benjamin A. Pinsky, Jacob E. Sunshine
Abstract
Using data for 20 912 patients from 2 large academic health systems, we analyzed the frequency of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction test discordance among individuals initially testing negative by nasopharyngeal swab who were retested on clinical grounds within 7 days. The frequency of subsequent positivity within this window was 3.5% and was similar across institutions.
Topics & Concepts
MedicineReverse transcription polymerase chain reactionPolymerase chain reactionCoronavirusReverse transcriptaseRespiratory systemCoronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)Internal medicineImmunologyVirologyDiseaseGeneInfectious disease (medical specialty)BiologyMessenger RNAGeneticsSARS-CoV-2 detection and testingSARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 ResearchViral gastroenteritis research and epidemiology