Abstract
A commercial Treponema pallidum haemagglutination (TPHA) test kit is now available in Australia. The kit contains formalinked tanned sheep erythrocytes sensitized with sonicated T. pallidum (Nichol's strain), unsensitized control cells and absorbing diluent. This paper describes an evaluation of this test. During an 18-wk period in 1971-72, 4,113 sera were submitted for syphilis serology. These sera were screened routinely with the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) test. TPHA and fluorescent treponema antibody absorption (FTA-ABS) tests were performed in parallel on all sera reactive by the VDRL test and also on non-reactive sera from patients with a history suggestive of syphilis. Almost identical results were obtained by these 2 tests when 205 reactive sera were detected in the 842 sera examined. The clinical stage of the disease and prior chemotherapy did not appear to alter the degree of reactivity of the TPHA test. These results confirm that the TPHA test is, therefore, as sensitive and specific as the FTA-ABS test It has the additional advantages that being simple to perform, it can be readily automated and, therefore, may be potentially useful as a screening test for treponemal antibodies.
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