Value and Validity of Coronavirus Antibody Testing
- PMID: 32942795
Value and Validity of Coronavirus Antibody Testing
Abstract
Background: The interventional pain management community saw the COVID-19 pandemic decimate elective interventional procedures and new patient visits across the United States until the reopening of America and the restarting of interventional procedures and elective surgical procedures began again. Health care providers, along with essential workers and patients, continue to be concerned about functioning in a safe and responsible manner. Consequently, a level of comfort is created by the testing health care workers with long exposure to new patients and patients undergoing interventions in high risk environments. As the United States and the world suffers from an ongoing infodemic, there are substantial amounts of misinformation, and some appropriate information being produced on molecular, antigen and antibody testing. Consequently, this manuscript is undertaken to describe the value and validity of coronavirus antibody testing.
Methods: Literature review.
Results: Antibody tests detect antibodies or immunoglobulins that are produced as the human immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. A positive result suggests that the individual has potentially been exposed to SARS-CoV-2. When immunoglobulins M (IgM) antibodies are present, they can indicate an active or recent infection, whereas immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies show up later in the infection process and can often indicate a past infection, but does not exclude recently infected patients who can still be contagious, especially when IgM antibodies are also concurrently detected. While past knowledge indicates that for viral infections, IgG antibodies usually persist longer than IgM antibodies and provide immunity from re-infection, it is not clearly known if that is true for COVID-19.
Limitations: A narrative review with paucity of literature.
Conclusion: Antibody tests have been developed to detect IgG only, both IgG and IgM, or total antibodies. At present, multiple antibody tests are available for use in the United States. In a review of 54 available studies through the end of April, mostly from China, the accuracy of pooled results for combination IgG/IgM tests was 91.4% (95% CI, 87.0 - 96.6) for 15 to 21 days post-symptom onset. Thus, antibody tests provide a promise and a peril in the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Keywords: COVID 19; Corona; IgG antibodies; IgM antibodies; antibody testing; antigen testing.
Similar articles
-
Antibody tests for identification of current and past infection with SARS-CoV-2.Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020 Jun 25;6(6):CD013652. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD013652. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020. Update in: Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2022 Nov 17;11:CD013652. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD013652.pub2. PMID: 32584464 Free PMC article. Updated.
-
Evaluation of performance of two SARS-CoV-2 Rapid IgM-IgG combined antibody tests on capillary whole blood samples from the fingertip.PLoS One. 2020 Sep 17;15(9):e0237694. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0237694. eCollection 2020. PLoS One. 2020. PMID: 32941461 Free PMC article.
-
Antibody Detection and Dynamic Characteristics in Patients With Coronavirus Disease 2019.Clin Infect Dis. 2020 Nov 5;71(8):1930-1934. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciaa461. Clin Infect Dis. 2020. PMID: 32306047 Free PMC article.
-
[SARS-CoV-2 and Microbiological Diagnostic Dynamics in COVID-19 Pandemic].Mikrobiyol Bul. 2020 Jul;54(3):497-509. doi: 10.5578/mb.69839. Mikrobiyol Bul. 2020. PMID: 32755524 Review. Turkish.
-
Diagnostic performance of COVID-19 serology assays.Malays J Pathol. 2020 Apr;42(1):13-21. Malays J Pathol. 2020. PMID: 32342927 Review.
Cited by
-
Trajectories of Seroprevalence and Neutralizing Activity of Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in Southern Switzerland between July 2020 and July 2021: An Ongoing, Prospective Population-Based Cohort Study.Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Feb 19;20(4):3703. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20043703. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023. PMID: 36834397 Free PMC article.
-
The prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies within the community of a private tertiary university in the Philippines: A serial cross sectional study.PLoS One. 2022 Dec 5;17(12):e0268145. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0268145. eCollection 2022. PLoS One. 2022. PMID: 36469505 Free PMC article.
-
Investigation of Durability of SARS-CoV-2-specific IgG and IgM Antibodies in Recovered COVID-19 Patients: A Prospective Study.Avicenna J Med Biotechnol. 2022 Jul-Sep;14(3):233-238. doi: 10.18502/ajmb.v14i3.9830. Avicenna J Med Biotechnol. 2022. PMID: 36061129 Free PMC article.
-
Perception of testing for COVID-19 during the first wave of the pandemic in Slovakia with emphasis on population age groups.Cent Eur J Public Health. 2022 Jun;30(2):93-98. doi: 10.21101/cejph.a7013. Cent Eur J Public Health. 2022. PMID: 35876597
-
Detection of SARS-CoV-2 by rapid antigen tests on saliva in hospitalized patients with COVID-19.Infect Ecol Epidemiol. 2021 Oct 29;11(1):1993535. doi: 10.1080/20008686.2021.1993535. eCollection 2021. Infect Ecol Epidemiol. 2021. PMID: 34745449 Free PMC article.
Publication types
MeSH terms
Substances
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Medical
Research Materials
Miscellaneous