Table 2.
Sensitivity and Specificity of Manual Treponemal Assays for Diagnosis of Syphilis in Clinically Characterized Specimens (Published Data)
| Test Performance | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assay | Stage | Sensitivity | Specificity | References |
| FTA-ABS | Primary | 78.2–100% | 87.0–100% | Augenbraun [2], Byrne [3], Coffey [4], Farshy [5], Huber [6], Ijsselmuiden [7], Ijsselmuiden [8], Jaffe [9], Larsen [10], Lam [11], Moyer [12], Park [13], Pope [14], Romanowski [15], Van Eijk [16], Young [17] |
| Secondary | 92.8–100% | |||
| Latent (combined) | 83–100% | |||
| Early latent | 94.4–100% | |||
| Late latent | 84.5–92.6% | |||
| MHA-TP | Primary | 45.9–88.6% | 98.8–99.0% | Augenbraun [2], Coffey [4], Dyckman [18], Huber [6], Jaffe [9], Larsen [10], Pope [14] |
| Secondary | 90–100% | |||
| Latent (combined) | 99–100%c` | |||
| Early latent | 94.4–100% | |||
| Late latent | 97% | |||
| TP-PA | Primary | 86.2–100% | 99.6–100% | Bosshard [19], Creegan [20], Cole [21], Lam [11], Liu [22], Manavi [23], Park [13], Pope [24], Wellinghausen [25] |
| Secondary | 100% | |||
| Latent (combined) | 100% | |||
| Early latent | 94.4–100% | |||
| Late latent | 86.8–100% | |||
Abbreviations: FTA-ABS, fluorescent treponemal antibody absorbed test; MHA-TP, microhemagluttination assay for T. pallidum antibodies; TP-PA, Treponema pallidum particle agglutination assay.