Comparison of various detection methods for syphilis antibodies

Objective To adopt 4 different methods of syphilis enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay(TP-ELISA),Treponema pallidum antibody rapid plasma reagin test(RPR),Treponema pallidum gel test(TPPA) and Treponema pallidum antibody colloidal gold strips(colloidal gold) for detecting syphilis antibodies to examine the methodological sensitivity and specificity.Methods The currently used TP-ELISA,RPR,TPPA and colloidal gold were used to detect syphilis antibodies in 67 positive specimens and 80 negative samples.Results The sensitivities of TP-ELISA,RPR,TPPA and colloidal gold were 95.5%,80.6%,98.5% and 91.0%,the specificity was 91.3%,88.8%,97.5% and 100.0%,the positive predictive value were 90.1%,85.7%,97.1% and 100.0%,the negative predictive values were 96.1%,84.5%,98.7% and 93.0%.Conclusion TP-ELISA is the ideal method for screening of syphilis at the present.RPR for detecting non-specific syphilis antibodies is used to screening tests and efficacy monitoring.Colloidal gold is quick,convenient and very suitable for detecting the emergency samples.TPPA is unsuitable for large-scale blood screening and suitable for confirmation test of syphilis antibodies in the positive specimens after screening.