In the clinic, antigen testing is a common method used in the laboratory to determine the type of viral infection, by detecting the antigen of the pathogen in the body, it can determine whether the organism is infected or not.
Antigen testing is widely used in the clinic, such as hepatitis B virus antigen testing, new coronavirus antigen testing and so on. Antigen detection can be simply understood as the detection of viral shell, through the reaction of special reagents with the proteins of the viral shell, to determine whether there is a viral infection.
Antigen test has the advantages of simplicity, convenience and economy, but its sensitivity is poor, so a positive antigen test is usually not used as a basis for diagnosis.
Patients with positive antigen test should undergo further testing to determine whether there is a pathogen infection in order to avoid delay in diagnosis and treatment.