Alergologia Polska - Polish Journal of Allergology

Abstract

2/2022 vol. 9
Review paper

The concept of a false-positive (result) in the context of COVID-19 diagnostics and medical recommendations

  1. Zakład Biologii Molekularnej, Katedra Biologii Medycznej, Uniwersytet Medyczny w Łodzi, Łódź, Polska
  2. Celther Polska Sp. z o.o., Laboratorium Naukowo-Badawcze, Konstantynów Łódzki, Polska
  3. Personather Sp. z o.o., Konstantynów Łódzki, Polska
  4. Zakład Biologii Nowotworów, Katedra Biologii Medycznej, Uniwersytet Medyczny w Łodzi, Łódź, Polska
Alergologia Polska – Polish Journal of Allergology 2022; 9, 2: 78–88
Online publish date: 2022/05/16
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COVID-19 is an example of a big challenge for diagnostics. In the case of many diseases and syndromes, there is a possibility to repeat the tests, and the time allocated for diagnosis is counted even in weeks, not in hours, as in COVID-19. The situation related to COVID-19, therefore leads to a large number of tensions, both among diagnostic physicians and patients. Especially that in this case, based on a positive result, the decision is being made not only about the choice of a possible therapy, but also about quarantine. This article refers to the predictive value of tests used in the diagnosis of COVID-19 (mainly RT-PCR), focusing on the concept of a false positive result. The article demonstrates that this is a relative term, depending on the question posed, the purpose of the diagnosis (selection of therapy, quarantine decision, disease detection), or even the variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Effective vaccination against COVID-19, the increasing percentage of convalescent patients, and the emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant minimalize all these problems. However, shifting away from widely used screening tests, should not cause abandoning COVID-19 testing completely. Part of the population may still die from the disease and effective targeted therapy already exists. In order to personalize this therapy, a test such as RT-PCR must be used.
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