engleski

Borderline SARS-CoV-2 patients: the trace behind

Background: Effective and precise SARS-CoV-2 detection assays are crucial for maintaining regular hospital routines and identifying infected hospital employees and infected patients before hospital admission. Inconclusive PCR test results of potentially infectious borderline SARS-CoV-2 patients can confuse clinicians and delay appropriate infection control. Objectives and study design: In this retrospective study, we followed up borderline SARS-CoV-2 patients who were tested (from the second sample with the same method) at the Clinical Department of Clinical Microbiology. We aimed to determine the positivity conversion ratio within 7 days after inconclusive PCR test results. Results: Out of 247 borderline patients, who were resampled and retested in the same laboratory, 60 patients (29.4%) showed conversion of the borderline viral load (inconclusive RT-PCR test) to a positive RT-PCR test result. Conclusions: Our results highlight the need for retesting of borderline patients with inconclusive SARSCoV- 2 results. Follow-up testing of inconclusive PCR results within 7 days can identify additional positive results and reduce the potential risk of intrahospital transmission.

COVID-19 testing ; borderline SARS CoV-2 patient ; inconclusive PCR result ; SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR ; resampling and retesting

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