EUnetHTA is pleased to announce that the “Rapid Collaborative Review on the diagnostic accuracy of molecular methods that detect the presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus in people with suspected COVID-19” is now available. This is the second rapid review assessing health technologies for SARS-CoV-2.
The objective of this assessment was to identify, assess and summarise evidence on the performance and diagnostic accuracy of the molecular tests and methods based on nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) for the diagnosis of a suspected infection with SARS-CoV-2.
This assessment has been carried out in approximately 5 months and it was published on the 4th of December 2020. Owing to the urgency of the situation, the present assessment was performed very rapidly.
As a result of the quality and limited number of eligible studies, insufficient evidence was found for the evaluation of the diagnostic accuracy of NAAT in asymptomatic subjects, monitoring of close contacts or as part of mass screening. Nevertheless, a substantial body of evidence was found in order to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of NAAT in suspected, active infections with SARS-CoV-2. The analysis revealed generally comparable diagnostic accuracies across the different types of identified test classes. This suggests that alternative NAAT have the potential to provide solutions in order to overcome issues associated with the current diagnostic protocols and boost testing capacity. However, the limitations of the existing evidence base should be taken into account by decision makers.
Please access the review here:
RCROT02 – Final Rapid Collaborative Review
