A rapid blood test that can be conducted at home for identifying COVID-19 vaccination was developed by researchers at Johns Hopkins University.
“The majority of current point-of-care antibody tests developed for SARS-CoV-2 rely on lateral flow assays, but these do not offer quantitative information,” the report’s authors wrote in their release.
“To address this, we developed a new method of COVID-19 antibody testing employing hemagglutination tested on a dry card, similar to that which is already available for rapid typing of ABO blood groups.”
The report’s findings were based on the testing of 400 blood samples, with half of which originated from patients with previous infection with COVID-19.
“In conclusion, we developed a novel rapid, point-of-care RBC agglutination test for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies that can yield semi-quantitative information on neutralizing antibody titer in patients. The five-minute test may find use in determination of serostatus prior to vaccination, post-vaccination surveillance and travel screening,” the report concluded.
