Due to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, the demand for an easily accessible high-throughput screening test is increasing. We aimed to evaluate the usefulness of the extrac-tion-free polymerase chain reaction (PCR) as a screening test to detect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2). Real-time reverse transcription PCR was performed in 300 samples (260 SARS-CoV-2 positives and 40 negatives), using both the conventional nucleic acid extraction method (standard method) and the direct method without nucleic acid extraction (direct method). The overall agreement between the standard and direct methods was 86.8 % (kappa 0.60), and the sensitivity of the direct method compared to the standard method was 85.4 %. When the cycle threshold (Ct) value was less than 35, the sensitivity was approximately 90 %–98 %, and when Ct exceeded 35, it decreased to approximately 60 %–65 %. The extraction-free PCR could be useful as a screening test that processes many samples in a short time.

由于 2019 年冠状病毒病大流行，对易于访问的高通量筛选测试的需求正在增加。我们的目的是评估免提取聚合酶链反应 (PCR) 作为检测严重急性呼吸系统综合症冠状病毒 2 (SARS-CoV-2) 筛查试验的有效性。对 300 个样本（260 个 SARS-CoV-2 阳性和 40 个阴性）进行了实时逆转录 PCR，同时使用常规核酸提取法（标准法）和不提取核酸的直接法（直接法）。标准法和直接法的总体一致性为 86.8% (kappa 0.60)，与标准法相比，直接法的灵敏度为 85.4%。当循环阈值 (Ct) 值小于 35 时，灵敏度约为 90 %–98 %，当 Ct 超过 35 时，它下降到大约 60%–65%。免提取 PCR 可用作在短时间内处理许多样本的筛选测试。