evaluation of diagnostic modalities for sars-cov-2: a review study

Background and aims: in late december 2019, a cluster of progressive pneumonia-like respiratorysyndromes broke out in wuhan, china. as the number of cases continued to rise, the 2019 coronavirusdisease (covid-19) has been declared a global public health emergency. the causative agent, i.e.,sars-cov-2, is a highly contagious strain, which has resulted in the rapid worldwide outbreak ofcovid-19. covid-19 is an overwhelmingly transmissible disease that requires early and accuratediagnosis for proper and timely treatment of suspected cases.materials and methods: in order to access the scientific documentation and evidence related to the subjectpublished during 2019 to 2021, english keywords including “covid-19”, “sars-cov-2”, “diagnosis”,“immunoglobulin g (igg)”, “immunoglobulin m (igm)”, and ‘polymerase chain reaction (pcr)” weresearched in medline, pubmed, and google scholar databases and persian versions of these keywordswere also looked for in jihad-e daneshgahi’s scientific information database (sid) and iranian journalsdatabase (magiran)results: with respect to diagnosis, serum antibody assays, nucleic acid sequencing, and radiologicevaluation are among the most reliable methods to rule out the disease in suspicious cases. this reviewis a synopsis of the pathogenesis of coronavirus, which will mainly focus on the diagnostic methods,as well as laboratory changes in immunoglobulins, polymerase chain reaction results, and computedtomography (ct) findings.conclusion: early diagnosis matters in that it not only contributes to the prevention of furthertransmission of the virus by asymptomatic carriers but also paves the way for clinicians to accuratelychoose the best therapeutic approach depending on the status of the patients.