Clinical evaluation of the automated Abbott RealTime SARS-CoV-2, Alinity m SARS-CoV-2, and Alinity m Resp-4-Plex assays.

Robert Ehret, Stefan Breuer, Jens Dhein, Birgit Reinhardt, Martin Obermeier

Journal of virological methods 2022 Jan

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Detection of SARS-CoV-2 infections relies on the use of sensitive, accurate and high throughput RT-PCR assays. We assessed the analytical performance of the Abbott RealTime SARS-CoV-2 (RT-SARS), Alinity m SARS-CoV-2 (AlinSARS) assays and compared the clinical performance of the RT-SARS, AlinSARS, and Alinity m Resp-4-Plex (Alin4Plex) assays to the Seegene Allplex assay (Allplex) and an inhouse test (Inhouse). We found 100 % positive percent agreement (PPA) and 100 % negative percent agreement (NPA) comparing RT-SARS and Allplex. RT-SARS, AlinSARS and Inhouse showed 100 % NPA and 100 % PPA across all assays, except for the RdRp target of Inhouse (PPA = 84 %). Similarly, Alin4Plex and Allplex showed high agreement with specimens containing either SARS-CoV-2, influenza A, influenza B, or RSV. Detection rates of 100 % for SARS-CoV-2 at 50 copies/mL, high precision, and no cross-reactivity with non-SARS-CoV-2 respiratory pathogens were observed for RT-SARS and AlinSARS. AlinSARS detected SARS-CoV-2 in spiked throat washes and in specimens infected with SARS-CoV-2 Alpha or Beta variants. The newly developed RT-SARS, AlinSARS, and Alin4Plex assays proved to be useful for detecting SARS-CoV-2 RNA in clinical samples. Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Citation

Robert Ehret, Stefan Breuer, Jens Dhein, Birgit Reinhardt, Martin Obermeier. Clinical evaluation of the automated Abbott RealTime SARS-CoV-2, Alinity m SARS-CoV-2, and Alinity m Resp-4-Plex assays. Journal of virological methods. 2022 Jan;299:114338