Volta
Diagnostic Accuracy of a SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Test Obtained by Mid-turbinate Nasal Swabs
Context In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing for SARS-CoV-2 was difficult to obtain and took several days to return a result. Our health system wished to explore the use of the Quidel Sofia (Quidel Corporation, San Diego, CA) antigen test to diagnose COVID-19 in our primary care clinics, but the test was approved for emergency use authorization by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with only 250 test subjects. In addition, because it was important to avoid aerosol-generating procedures in primary care clinics, it was necessary to test the diagnostic performance of the antigen test using mid-turbinate (MT) swabs rather than the approved nasopharyngeal (NP) swab technique. Objective The aim of this …