Abbott ID Now

2020: False results in half of cases

In the middle of May, 2020 results of a new research according to which rapid tests for COVID-19 coronavirus from Abbott show false results almost in half of cases became known.

Was considered that the rapid test of Abbott ID NOW works quicker, than other tests, and provides result within 13 minutes. Authors of a research from New York University of Langone Health said that the Abbott test is inexact and "unacceptable" for use.

Rapid tests for a coronavirus from Abbott show false results in half of cases

Researchers studied dabs from a nose at 101 patients and compared test results of Abbott to results of other diagnostic test on COVID-19 provided by Cepheid company. The Cepheid test showed positive result at 31 of 101 patients. At inspection of these people by Abbott test researchers received negative result in 48% of cases, including at patients with clinical picture COVID-19.

The Abbott test showed more acceptable results concerning negative samples with an accuracy of 98.5%, according to researchers of New York University. However, it should be noted that the research was placed on the server of preliminary printing biorxiv.org, and article with results was not considered by other scientists and not published in the medical magazine.

The Abbott company disputes these outputs:

Results of a research of New York University will not be approved with other researches, said in the statement of the company published on its website. - For example, in other recent research conducted in the State of Washington, the positive test result was received at 23 of about 1000 examinees, at the same time the sensitivity of the test was 91%, and specificity of 100%.

The regulator which issued the emergency permission to sale of the new Abbott test in March, 2020 also makes own investigation.^[1]

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