Evaluation of new automated syphilis test reagents ‘IMMUNOTICLES AUTO3’ series: Performance, biochemical reactivity, and clinical significance

BackgroundAutomated nontreponemal and treponemal test reagents based on the latex agglutination method (IMMUNOTICLES AUTO3 RPR: ITA3RPR and IMMUNOTICLES AUTO3 TP: ITA3TP) have been developed to improve the issues of conventional manual methods such as their subjectivity, a massive amount of assays, and so on. We evaluated these reagents in regards to their performance, reactivity to antibody isotype, and their clinical significance.MethodsITA3RPR and ITA3TP were measured using a clinical chemistry analyzer. Reactivity to antibody isotype was examined by gel filtration analysis.ResultsITA3RPR and ITA3TP showed reactivity to both IgM- and IgG-class antibodies and detected early infections. ITA3RPR was verified to show a higher reactivity to IgM-class antibodies than the conventional methods. ITA3RPR correlated with VDRL in the high titer range, and measurement values decreased with treatment. ITA3RPR showed a negative result earlier after treatment than conventional methods. ITA3TP showed high specificity and did not give any false–negative reaction. Significant differences in the measurement values of ITA3RPR between the infective and previous group were verified.ConclusionsThe double test of ITA3RPR and ITA3TP enables efficient and objective judgment for syphilis diagnosis and treatments, achieving clinical availability.