Comparison Of Three Methods Of Syphilis Testing In Blood Donors-RPR, TPHA & ELISA

Comparison Of Three Methods Of Syphilis Testing In Blood Donors

Abstract

Background: syphilis can be transmitted through blood, so it is significant to choose a method with high specificity and affinity to test syphilis when do the blood screening. The goal of this study was to compare the performance of three commercially available treponema-specific assays using 58,969 serum samples collected in our blood bank. Material And Methods: Serum samples collected in our blood bank were tested with the 3 treponema-specific assays described below. each sample was tested with an RPR, TPHA and ELISA to assess potential recent infection. 58,969 serum samples were collected over the period of 1.5 year and tested for syphilis in our blood bank. blood units showing reactivity in any one of the tests, were discarded as per NACO strategy I for blood bank. Result: The total samples of three methods are 58,969.Among the total samples studied, 125(0.22%) were reactive by the RPR technique, while 331 (0.56%) samples, were reactive by the ELISA & TPHA techniques, So there were 125 samples which were reactive by all 3 methods. However, the 206 samples which are negative through RPR and are tested positive in ELISA and in TPHA. Conclusion: data suggest that each method has limitations. It is important that health care providers must perform a thorough review of each patient's clinical and treatment history when interpreting the results of syphilis serology. There are statistical differences on positive rate when the 206 blood samples are tested through syphilis RPR, TPHA and syphilis ELISA. Compared with the results of TPHA and ELISA, RPR have both false positivity and false negativity but the results of TPHA and ELISA just have false positivity. In addition, detection capability of syphilis ELISA and of TPHA is stronger than RPR syphilis and it also be more fitting to blood screening. So in comparison of methodology and practical operation RPR are not fit for the large-scale blood screening while syphilis ELISA and TPHA is the one which can be applied to a large-scale blood screening. [Shah M Natl J Integr Res Med, 2020; 11(3):15-18]