Evaluation of LIAISON Treponema screen, a novel recombinant antigen-based chemiluminescence immunoassay for laboratory diagnosis of syphilis

none8The purpose of this study was to evaluate diagnostic performances of LIAISON® Treponema Screen (DiaSorin, Saluggia, Italy), a new automated chemiluminescent immunoassay (CLIA) in comparison with RPR and currently used treponemal tests: haemagglutination test (TPHA), immunoenzymatic assay (EIA) and Western Blot (WB). At first, a retrospective study was performed with a panel of 2494 blood donors sera, a panel of 131 clinical and serologic characterized syphilitic sera and 96 samples obtained from subjects with from potentially interfering diseases or conditions. A prospective study was also performed by testing 1800 unselected samples submitted to the Microbiology Laboratory of the St. Orsola Hospital in Bologna for routine screening for syphilis. As expected, RPR was the least specific method, especially when potentially cross-reacting sera were tested. On the contrary, all the treponemal tests showed to be very specific (99.9%) and they performed with the following sensitivities: 100% (WB), 99.2% (CLIA), 95.4% (EIA), and 94.7% (TPHA).noneMarangoni A.; Sambri V.; Accardo S.; Cavrini F.; D'Antuono A.; Moroni A.; Storni E.; Cevenini R.Marangoni A.; Sambri V.; Accardo S.; Cavrini F.; D'Antuono A.; Moroni A.; Storni E.; Cevenini R