• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Study identifies need for better SARS diagnostic tests

Hospital Safety Connection, December 10, 2003

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Hospital Safety Connection!

A new study found that a variety of tests used on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) patients during Toronto's first outbreak of the virus last spring only produced positive results in 71% of patients, the Canadian Press reports. The findings illustrate the needs for better diagnostic tests in case SARS returns this winter.

Conducted by a consortium of Toronto researchers, the study will be published in the January 6, 2004, issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Without more accurate tests, physicians must rely on their clinical judgment and the determination of a potential exposure to the virus, the report concludes.

The current tests make it difficult to distinguish patients with SARS from those with pneumonia. The Toronto study looked at testing done on 110 probable and suspect SARS cases from the first outbreak.

Some of the tests used polymerase chain reaction, which looks for traces of the virus' DNA in specimens such as blood, stool, sputum, or nasal swabs. Some was done by checking the blood of patients to see if they had developed antibodies to the SARS coronavirus. Because antibodies take a while to develop, those tests could not come up with a quick diagnosis.

Want to receive articles like this one in your inbox? Subscribe to Hospital Safety Connection!

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive