A rapid influenza diagnostic test (RIDT) is rapid diagnostic test of the rapid antigen test type that detects the influenza viral nucleoprotein antigen. Commercially available RIDTs can provide results within 30 minutes or less.
A study published in The New England Journal of Medicine concludes that that one test generated a false negative 49 percent of the time, meaning it detected H1N1 only 51 percent of the time. Another study published in the Journal of Clinical Virology found another test generated a false negative 82.2 percent of the time, detecting H1N1 only 17.2 percent of the time.
A study in Emerging Infectious Diseases, published by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), found that a test generated a false negative 88.9 of the time, detecting H1N1 only 11.1 percent of the time.