Özet:

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which began in China in December 2019 and affected the whole world in a very short time, has become one of the most serious global health problems to date. In this process, timely and correctly applied microbiological diagnostic tests have been an important part of the epidemic and case management. Since the beginning of the pandemic, real-time reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), which has been developed to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA in respiratory tract samples, is the most widely used diagnostic method. The detection of the virus RNA by RT-PCR provides the definitive diagnosis of COVID-19 disease, but a negative test result does not exclude the possibility of infection. In clinically suspicious cases, repeated samples should be taken within 24-48 hours and lower respiratory tract samples should be preferred for diagnosis in patients with severe lung findings. The use of low-cost and easy-to-apply rapid antigen tests is limited to the acute phase of the disease when viral load is high. Due to sensitivity and specificity problems, the antigen test results should be confirmed by RT-PCR tests. Antibody tests indicate the exposure to the virus. Antibody tests should not be used alone in the diagnosis of the disease in acute phase, because the antibody response of the patients against the virus is variable and late. Antibody tests, which are performed on the blood samples taken 2-3 weeks after the onset of symptoms, can be used as an additional test to aid molecular diagnosis. In this review, the features, clinical advantages and limitations of the methods used in the microbiological diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 infection are discussed in line with the obtained data to date.