Korean J healthc assoc Infect Control Prev.  2021 Dec;26(2):47-56. 10.14192/kjicp.2021.26.2.47.

Laboratory Diagnosis and Utilization for COVID-19

• Kim MN
• Kim HS
• Bae HG
• Huh HJ
• Sung H

• KMID: 2523602
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.14192/kjicp.2021.26.2.47

Abstract

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020, the COVID-19 diagnostic test has become a critical means of national response. Laboratory diagnosis of patients with COVID-19 is essential for not only patient management but also understanding the epidemiology and preventing the spread of infection, such as contact tracing. Real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), which amplifies and detects viral nucleic acids, is the gold standard for laboratory diagnosis of COVID-19. Currently, various real-time RT-PCR diagnostic kits are commercially available worldwide. Therefore, verifying the sensitivity and specificity of these kits plays an important role in determining their diagnostic value. However, in addition to RTPCR, the point-of-care test that is rapid and affordable by untrained individuals, antibody tests to monitor the immunological course of infected or vaccinated individuals, and large-scale sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 genome are technologies that are also needed in the long-term COVID-19 pandemic. As the COVID-19 pandemic situation intensifies, the need for various diagnostic tests has also increases, and there has been a quantum leap in quality and quantity. This review intends to present a comprehensive perspective on various diagnostic methods and appropriate use of tests approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety in Korea and used for COVID-19 laboratory diagnosis.

Keyword

COVID-19; Diagnostic test; Polymerase chain reaction; SARS-CoV-2

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Appropriate performance characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 tests according to status of the person being tested and the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in the population being tested. Non-ideal testing should be utilized by laboratory professional balancing turnaround time and analytical performance in the real world with changing epidemiology such as prevalence.

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