comparative evaluation of elisa and real-time pcr tests to detect covid-19

Considering the wide spread of covid-19 and its high death rate, it is very important to find a sensitive and accurate diagnostic method. thus, this study compared two main diagnostic approaches; pcr and elisa, to detect covid-19. methods: fifty patients admitted to baghiyatalah hospital were examined to detect covid-19 rna by real-time pcr method, as well as for the presence of igg and igm antibodies by elisa method. the results were statistically analysed by spss software. results: the mean age of patients is 38.4 years old. the percentage of positive cases of covid-19 in the studied patients according to pcr and elisa tests was 66% and 70%, respectively. there was a statistically significant difference between positive cases of covid-19 detected by pcr and elisa with emerging fever, weakness, and lethargy . the diagnostic value of elisa versus pcr showed that the sensitivity, specificity, positive likelihood ratio, and true positive rate were 100%, 88.2%, 8.5, and 94.29%, respectively. conclusion: although the sensitivity of detection in real-time pcr is higher than that in elisa, there is a high agreement between the two methods when used for diagnosis of covid-19.