Evaluation of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels: two different methods.

OBJECTIVE: Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) disease (COVID-19) is still a major problem worldwide. Antibody response to SARS-CoV-2 has not yet been fully clarified, and clinical benefits of serological tests remain unclear. Despite the presence of numerous systems and methods used to analyze antibody levels, it is difficult to mention about standardization. This study aims to evaluate antibody levels of COVID-19 patients obtained by different methods. METHODS: Specimens of 55 patients were included in this study. Patients underwent SARS-CoV-2 real-time polymerase chain reaction test, COVID-19 IgM/IgG antibody rapid test (Hotgen), and Roche SARS-CoV-2 antibody test. RESULTS: In this study, the positive values of COVID-19 IgM/IgG antibody rapid test, Roche SARS-CoV-2 antibody test, and SARS-CoV-2 real-time polymerase chain reaction test were 37, 26, and 31, respectively, whereas the negative values were 18, 29, and 24, respectively. A comparison of the results using χ² test revealed a significant difference among SARS-CoV-2 real-time polymerase chain reaction, COVID-19 IgM/IgG antibody rapid test (Hotgen), and Roche SARS-CoV-2 antibody test. CONCLUSIONS: We recommend antibody testing in close contact tracing as well as in real-time polymerase chain reaction negative symptomatic subjects. Standardization is important as positive values show significant variations among antibody tests.

Retrospective Evaluation of Cases with the Pre-diagnosis of Cystic Echinococcosis Admitted to the Microbiology Laboratory of Diyarbakir Health Sciences Gazi Yasargil Training and Research Hospital Between 2014 and 2017.

OBJECTIVE: Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is a zoonotic disease, which leads to morbidity and mortality worldwide. This study aimed to retrospectively evaluate the presence of anti-Echinococcus granulosus immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies, which were detected by indirect fluorescent antibody test in the samples that were transferred to the Microbiology Laboratory of University of Health Sciences Turkey, Diyarbakir Gazi Yasargil Training and Research Hospital with the pre-diagnosis of CE. Moreover, gender differences with respect to positivity rates of anti-E. granulosus IgG antibodies were investigated. METHODS: Anti-E. granulosus IgG antibodies, which were detected in the samples of cases with the pre-diagnosis of CE between January 2014 and December 2017, were retrospectively evaluated. Gender difference with respect to positivity rates was investigated by applying the chi-square test in cases with positive anti-E. granulosus IgG antibodies. RESULTS: Out of the 829 serum samples, 222 (26.7%) were found to be positive for E. granulosus IgG antibodies, among which 40 (27.2%), 56 (25.5%), 51 (23.3%) and 75 (30.6%) were found to be positive in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017, respectively. No significant difference was found between genders amongst the cases with positive anti-E. granulosus IgG antibodies (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: Since CE is a major public health problem, evaluation of the presence of anti-E. granulosus IgG antibodies would be important to understand the positivity rate at the regional level.