{"doi":"10.1017/ice.2021.146","title":"Clinical characteristics of hospitalized patients with false-negative severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) test results","abstract":"OBJECTIVE: To determine clinical characteristics associated with false-negative severe acute respiratory coronavirus virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) test results to help inform coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) testing practices in the inpatient setting. DESIGN: A retrospective observational cohort study. SETTING: Tertiary-care facility. PATIENTS: All patients 2 years of age and older tested for SARS-CoV-2 between March 14, 2020, and April 30, 2020, who had at least 2 SARS-CoV-2 reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction tests within 7 days. METHODS: The primary outcome measure was a false-negative testing episode, which we defined as an initial negative test followed by a positive test within the subsequent 7 days. Data collected included symptoms, demographics, comorbidities, vital signs, labs, and imaging studies. Logistic regression was used to model associations between clinical variables and false-negative SARS-CoV-2 test results. RESULTS: Of the 1,009 SARS-CoV-2 test results included in the analysis, 4.0% were false-negative results. In multivariable regression analysis, compared with true-negative test results, false-negative test results were associated with anosmia or ageusia (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 8.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.4-50.5; P = .02), having had a COVID-19-positive contact (aOR, 10.5; 95% CI, 4.3-25.4; P < .0001), and having an elevated lactate dehydrogenase level (aOR, 3.3; 95% CI, 1.2-9.3; P = .03). Demographics, symptom duration, other laboratory values, and abnormal chest imaging were not significantly associated with false-negative test results in our multivariable analysis. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical features can help predict which patients are more likely to have false-negative SARS-CoV-2 test results.","journal":"Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology","year":2021,"id":207391,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":4,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.5214,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2021-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":792940,"name":"Dariusz A Hareza","orcid":"0000-0002-5425-7958","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":792941,"name":"Maggie Collison","orcid":"0000-0003-0575-0997","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":792942,"name":"Anna E. Czapar","orcid":"0000-0001-5380-676X","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":793514,"name":"Antigone Kraft","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":792943,"name":"Bennett J. Waxse","orcid":"0000-0001-5086-3419","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":383134,"name":"Eleanor E. Friedman","orcid":"0000-0001-5840-9763","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":332278,"name":"Jessica P. Ridgway","orcid":"0000-0002-6939-6096","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":792939,"name":"Erica MacKenzie","orcid":"0000-0003-0297-5998","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":42,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:51:49.715594Z","pmid":"33867000","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}