Factors Associated with False Negative and False Positive RT-PCR Test Results for COVID-19 Detection

Abstract

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread rapidly and developed the current pandemic and the stressful lifestyle in addition with extreme pressure on people was the consequence of its increasing mortality rate. Since COVID-19 is highly infectious, it is crucial to diagnose the disease timely and initiate preventive measures to control the epidemic. Therefore, the need for accurate detection of this virus has been increased dramatically. Real-Time reverse-transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) tests are considered a gold standard to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA. Besides, the recent pandemic has posed the most serious challenge in PCR applications to date. Although RT-PCR has great accuracy, some factors can reduce the efficiency of this test. Time of testing and type of sample are typical elements that may cause false negative results. Furthermore, false positive cases would be the result of contamination and unoptimized primers. In this paper, the relevant factors creating false positive and false negative results have been investigated in depth to increase the awareness of clinicians.