Toukam Michel, Voundi-Voundi Esther, Bole Bernard, Mviena Nyimbe Louise, Sahmo Simon Stevensen, Nogue Raissa, Kasia Jean Marie,
Volume 18, Issue 3 (May-Jun 2024)
Abstract
Background: Syphilis has serious consequences for human health and poses challenges for biological diagnosis. Techniques such as chemiluminescence are still poorly known in our context. Our objective was to compare chemiluminescence and hemagglutination assays with immunoblot as a reference test for detecting anti-Treponema pallidum antibodies.
Methods: Anti-Treponema pallidum antibodies were detected in serum samples. Comparison of chemiluminescence and hemagglutination assays was carried out with immunoblot as the reference test, based on sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and kappa statistic, using IBM-SPSS version 24 software. The significance level was set at 5%.
Results: A total of 600 participants were recruited, with a prevalence of syphilis infection of 3%. Sensitivity and specificity were 100% and 96.2% for chemiluminescence, and 93.8% and 100% for hemagglutination, respectively. Cohen's kappa statistic between the two tests showed satisfactory agreement (0.768). Cohen's kappa agreements between chemiluminescence/immunoblot and plate hemagglutination assay/immunoblot were greater than 0.8, indicating excellent agreement with the reference test (p<0.0001).
Conclusion: Chemiluminescence is more sensitive but less specific than hemagglutination. The use of chemiluminescence as a first-line test for the diagnosis of syphilis should be considered.
