TY - JOUR AU - Lo, Raymundo AU - Barrientos, Agnes AU - Espiritu, Bernadette AU - Santiago, Farrah Kristine AU - Tandoc III, Amado AU - Veloso, Januario AU - Yanez, Socorro PY - 2021/01/05 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - An Evaluation of Pooling Strategies for RT-qPCR testing for SARS-CoV-2 Infection: A Pragmatic Multi-site Parallel Operational Study JF - PJP JA - Phil Journal Path VL - 5 IS - 2 SE - Original Articles DO - 10.21141/PJP.2020.12 UR - https://philippinejournalofpathology.org/index.php/PJP/article/view/203 SP - 12-33 AB - <p><strong>Background and Objectives.</strong> Sample pooling of COViD-19 PCR tests has been recently proposed as a low-cost alternative to individual tests.&nbsp; This multi-site, laboratory-based, proof-of-concept study explores the feasibility of pooled SARS-CoV-2 RT-qPCR testing, by demonstrating the effect of pooling on sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, number of tests saved, and turnaround time.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Methodology.</strong>&nbsp; The research was conducted in two experiments.&nbsp; In Experiment 1, archival nasopharyngeal (NPS) and oropharyngeal (OPS) swab samples were diluted to simulate 5, 10, and 20 sized pools, and tested for SARS-CoV-2 RNA using RT-qPCR. &nbsp; In Experiment 2, actual nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab samples were collected from asymptomatic low-risk volunteers.&nbsp; Aliquots of the samples were pooled following the 5, 10-5, and 20-10-5 multi-staged Dorfman pooling methods and tested.&nbsp; The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, test savings, and turnaround time for each pooling method were documented.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Results and Conclusions. </strong>&nbsp;The study provided evidence that pooling of NP and OP samples for SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection using RT-qPCR is feasible and can be implemented in the Philippines. A 2-stage Dorfman 5 pooling strategy appears to be the best method, because it has the highest over-all accuracy, while still achieving acceptable test savings, and turnaround time. Pooling of nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab samples prior to RT-qPCR testing may be considered by select molecular diagnostic laboratories to further increase testing capacity and at the same time reduce the cost of testing.</p> ER -