Imperial College study suggests rapid 90-min COVID-19 test gives accurate resultsImperial College study suggests rapid 90-min COVID-19 test gives accurate results
A new study conducted at Imperial College London suggests a rapid 90-minute test for COVID-19 provides precise results. The latest work recently appeared in the journal The Lancet Microbe. As part of the study, the team of researchers performed the high-speed tests on up to 386 NHS (the U.K. National Health Service) patients and staff members. The researchers claimed that these tests did not require any laboratory set-up and were performed using cartridges smaller than the size of a mobile phone.
Dubbed as Lab-in-Cartridge, these rapid COVID-19 testing devices can be used for testing at a patient’s bedside. The test involves a pediatric-sized nose swab collected from a patient that is inserted into the device. It then looks for traces of the genetic material related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and brings out the result in just 90 minutes. These tests have shown over 100% specificity and 94% sensitivity, implying that they had a high accuracy level and produced a relatively lesser number of false negatives and almost no false positives. Currently, these tests are being conducted across eight hospitals in London and are also providing successful outcomes. The tests are expected to be rolled out on a national level shortly. The British government recently placed an order for up to 5.8 million of these COVID-19 testing kits.
Prof. Graham Cooke of Imperial’s Department of Infectious Disease, elaborated on the latest development, “These results suggest the test, which can be performed at a patient’s bedside without the need to handle any sample material, has comparable accuracy to standard laboratory testing. Many tests involve a trade-off between speed and accuracy, but this test manages to achieve both. Developing an effective bedside test in under three months has been an incredible collaboration between teams of engineers, clinicians, and virologists.” Prof. Cooke is the lead investigator of the study.
