PMID- 23188934
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
DCOM- 20121129
LR  - 20240317
IS  - 2589-0565 (Electronic)
IS  - 2589-0557 (Print)
IS  - 2589-0557 (Linking)
VI  - 33
IP  - 2
DP  - 2012 Jul
TI  - Evaluation of the usefulness of Treponema pallidum hemagglutination test in the 
      diagnosis of syphilis in weak reactive Venereal Disease Research Laboratory sera.
PG  - 102-6
LID - 10.4103/0253-7184.102117 [doi]
AB  - BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Biological false positive (BFP) reactivity by the 
      Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) test used for diagnosis of syphilis 
      is a cause for concern. The use of the VDRL as a screening procedure is 
      challenged by some studies. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence 
      of BFP reactions in different subject groups and to assess the usefulness of 
      Treponema pallidum hemagglutination (TPHA) test in low titre VDRL reactive sera. 
      MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 5785 sera from sexually transmitted diseases 
      (STD) clinic attendees, antenatal clinic attendees, husbands of antenatal cases, 
      peripheral health centres attendees (representing community population) and from 
      patients referred from different OPDs/wards were screened for BFP reactions by 
      the VDRL test. Sera reactive in the VDRL test were confirmed by the TPHA test. 
      RESULTS: Out of 80 qualitative VDRL reactive sera, 68 had <1:8 titre on 
      quantitation and TPHA was positive in 59 samples, indicating BFP reactivity in 
      0.2% in all the subject groups. BFP was nil in the community population. The 
      male-to-female ratio of BFP reactions was 2:1. VDRL and TPHA positivity was 
      highest (76%) in the age group of 20-29 years. The seroprevalence of syphilis 
      varied from 0.4% to 3.5% in different patient groups. CONCLUSIONS: The results of 
      this study highlight that the TPHA positivity was high (86.8%) in sera with VDRL 
      titre less than 1:8. Therefore, for the diagnosis of syphilis, it is recommended 
      that a confirmatory test such as TPHA should be performed on all sera with a 
      reactive VDRL regardless of its titre.
FAU - Bala, Manju
AU  - Bala M
AD  - Regional STD Teaching, Training and Research Centre, Vardhman Mahavir Medical 
      College and Safdarjang Hospital, New Delhi, India.
FAU - Toor, Aman
AU  - Toor A
FAU - Malhotra, Meenakshi
AU  - Malhotra M
FAU - Kakran, Monika
AU  - Kakran M
FAU - Muralidhar, Sumathi
AU  - Muralidhar S
FAU - Ramesh, V
AU  - Ramesh V
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PL  - India
TA  - Indian J Sex Transm Dis AIDS
JT  - Indian journal of sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS
JID - 101730896
PMC - PMC3505284
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Biological false positive
OT  - Syphilis
OT  - Treponema pallidum hemagglutination
OT  - Venereal disease research laboratory
COIS- Conflict of Interest: None declared.
EDAT- 2012/11/29 06:00
MHDA- 2012/11/29 06:01
PMCR- 2012/07/01
CRDT- 2012/11/29 06:00
PHST- 2012/11/29 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2012/11/29 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2012/11/29 06:01 [medline]
PHST- 2012/07/01 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - IJSTD-33-102 [pii]
AID - 10.4103/0253-7184.102117 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Indian J Sex Transm Dis AIDS. 2012 Jul;33(2):102-6. doi: 
      10.4103/0253-7184.102117.