European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: SARS CoV-2 infection took the whole world by storm in the final month of 2019.Different measures have been taken to reduce its spread by timely and accurate detection of COVID 19(coronavirus disease 2019) infection in  suspected    patients and theircontacts.
Aim: This study was conducted to assess commercially available five Rt pcr (reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction) kits from different manufacturers available in our center for diagnostic  testing  ofSARS CoV-2  infection  .94 oropharyngeal  clinical  samples, previously confirmed as 64 positive and 30 negative for  SARS CoV-2 were extracted and amplified separately by each of the five Rt pcr kitsand the results compared.
Results:The performance  of different kits was in  was satisfactory and above 90 percent in agreement with the  standard kit  for samples (n=47) with low Ct values  (Ct values<30) .  There was a significant variation in  performance among the five kits while  testing  high Ct values (Ct value >30) samples (n=17).Significant variation in Ct values of E gene ,RdRp  gene and N gene was observed in the Rt pcr kits results .
Conclusion:  We conclude that it is necessary to assess the diagnostic performance of different Rt pcr kits   for COVID 19 clinical samples from time to time to study the variation in Ct values, sensitivity of different gene targets  of SARS CoV2 virus, with proper co -ordination with other  laboratories , for development of reliable COVID 19 diagnostic centers at every level.