An observational study on the effects of repeat testing in COVID-19 [COVID-19]
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A comparison of the incidence, demographics, outcomes and biochemical markers of patients diagnosed with novel coronavirus (COVID-19) after single or double testing – an retrospective observational study.
IRAS ID
284817
Contact name
Peter Turton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
R&D Department, Wirral University Hospital Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 1 months, 22 days
Research summary
The novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) is diagnosed by performing a swab of the nose and throat. These swabs for tested, with results being either positive or negative. Some will be reported as negative when they do have the virus (a “false negative”).\n\nSome are swabbed again – they may have symptoms that lead us to ignore the negative test result, or have a chest scan that is typical of the infection.\nWe are going to look at a large number of patients who were swabbed for COVID-19, who required admission to hospital. By looking at their notes, we aim to estimate the number of tests that came back positive after the first swab. Of the patients who had a negative test, some had a second test, and we then want to estimate how many people had a positive result at second testing.\n\nThis gives us three groups:\n\n•\tGroup 1: positive first test\n•\tGroup 2: positive after a second test\n•\tGroup 3: two negative tests \n\nBy examining the notes, we want to assess if there were any differences between these groups, for example, differences in age, or sex. We will also look at their blood results from admission, to see if there were differences in their results. For example, were blood tests of inflammation the same between groups? We will also look at blood results at the time of the second swab. We will then look for differences in mortality between the three groups, and to see how many people had evidence of other nonCOVID-19 infections during their admission to hospital.\n\nWe hope to understand the scale of the problem of false negative tests and if there are certain markers in routine blood tests that could raise our suspicion that somebody has COVID-19 infection, even when the swab is initially negative. [Study relying on COPI notice] \n\n
REC name
HSC REC A
REC reference
20/NI/0073
Date of REC Opinion
27 May 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion