Accuracy of COVID-19 diagnostic tests via infrared spectroscopy: A systematic review and meta-analysis

This study aims to synthesize the evidence on the accuracy parameters of COVID-19 diagnosis methods using infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). A systematic review with searches in PubMed and Embase was performed (September 2023). Studies reporting data on test specificity, sensitivity, true positive, true negative, false positive, and false negative using different human samples were included. Meta-analysis of accuracy estimates with 95 % confidence intervals and area under the ROC Curve (AUC) were conducted (Meta-Disc 1.4.7). Seventeen studies were included – all of them highlighted regions 650–1800 cm⁻¹ and 2300–3900 cm⁻¹ as most important for diagnosing COVID-19. The FTIR technique presented high sensitivity [0.912 (95 %CI, 0.878–0.939), especially in vaccinated [0.959 (CI95 %, 0.908–0.987)] compared to unvaccinated [0.625 (CI95 %, 0.584–0.664)] individuals for COVID-19. Overall specificity was also high [0.886 (95 %CI, 0.855–0.912), with increased rates in vaccinated [0.884 (CI95 %, 0.819–0.932)] than in unvaccinated [0.667 (CI95 %, 0.629–0.704)] patients. These findings reveal that FTIR is an accurate technique for detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection in different biological matrices with advantages including low cost, rapid and environmentally friendly with minimal preparation analyses. This could lead to an easy implementation of this technique in practice as a screening tool for patients with suspected COVID-19, especially in low-income countries.