Utility of COVID‐19 antigen testing in the emergency department

A key aspect in controlling the spread of COVID-19 is the need for accurate and rapid testing. The BinaxNOW COVID‐19 Ag Card point‐of‐care test (Abbott Diagnostics Scarborough, Inc.) is an excellent candidate as a first line of defense to identify people who are currently symptomatic, or at risk, and should isolate themselves to help prevent disease spread. The purpose of this study from HIP Investigator Dr. Brian Patterson was to determine the sensitivity, specificity, and negative and positive predictive values of this test in a population of suspected patients with COVID‐19.

This was a multicenter study that enrolled a convenience sample of patients from 27 EDs and hospital wards. The study found that nasal testing using the BinaxNOW point‐of‐care assay provides COVID‐19 results with high negative and positive predictive values compared with gold standard PCR testing.