ACCURACY OF A DUAL PATH PLATFORM (DPP) SYPHILIS SCREEN & CONFIRM ASSAY FOR SIMULTANEOUS DETECTION OF NONTREPONEMAL AND TREPONEMAL ANTIBODIES IN PATIENTS WITH ACQUIRED SYPHILIS

Abstract

We evaluate the performance of a point-of-care immunochromatographic test DPP® Syphilis Screen & Confirm Bio-Manguinhos Assay in the whole blood, sera, and plasma of patients with acquired syphilis in. The population was composed by adults stratified in three groups: HIV (N= 174), pregnant women (N= 170) and neither pregnant nor HIV infected (N=149). The results from the dual test were compared to the combination of TPHA+/VDRL≥1:8. The results of sensitivity in people infected with HIV were 100% in whole blood, sera, and plasma, and the specificity ranged from 91.9- 93.1%. The results of sensitivity in pregnant women were 100% in whole blood, sera, and plasma, and the specificity ranged from98.2-99.4%. The results of sensitivity in people neither pregnant nor HIV infected were 80% in whole blood and 100% in sera and plasma. The specificity in whole blood, sera, and plasma, ranged from 96.5- 97.2%. The DPP® Syphilis Screen & Confirm Bio-Manguinhos Assay showed good performance in detecting treponemal and nontreponemal antibodies in whole blood, serum and plasma, although the study has showed syphilis prevalences lower than previously estimated, affecting the positive predictive value calculation. These results indicate that the dual test could be used as an alternative in the diagnosis of syphilis.