Biomedical Journal

Biomedical Journal

Volume 44, Issue 1, February 2021, Pages 101-104
Biomedical Journal

Brief Communication
Comparison of the Roche cobas 6800 SARS-CoV-2 test and the Taiwan CDC protocol for the molecular diagnosis of COVID-19

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bj.2020.12.007Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Abstract

The current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused significant challenges throughout the world and a rapid, reliable diagnostic test is in high demand. Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was one of the most quickly established methods of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) detection and is considered to be the gold standard. In this report, we share our experience of using two different testing platforms: the cobas 6800 SARS-CoV-2 test, an automated system that was recently granted Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA, and a laboratory-developed test based on the protocol from the Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC). There was an overall 96.2% agreement between the two platforms. However, the positive agreement between the two platforms was only 80.0%. We found 3 instances of discordance between the two systems and this emphasized the need for timely diagnosis with a reliable testing platform.

Keywords

Coronavirus
Molecular diagnostics
Viral load
RT-PCR
RNA extraction

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Peer review under responsibility of Chang Gung University.