Sensitivity and specificity of three new commercially available Chlamydia trachomatis tests

In order to determine the value of new Chlamydia trachomatis (Ct) specific tests for routine serological diagnosis of Ct infections, we evaluated several commercially available assays (C. trachomatis enzyme immunoassay (EIA), Labsystems (CtL); SeroCT, Savyon (CtS); pELISA, Medac (CtMp)) in various study populations. The prevalence of C. trachomatis-specific IgA antibodies in a blood donor population (n = 443) as determined by the peptide based tests CtL, the CtS and the CtMp was 5%, while for IgG antibodies this was 6% (CtL and CtS) and 12% (CtMp) respectively. Prevalence was negatively correlated with age, concording with C. trachomatis specificity. None of the three tests showed significant titre rises in serum samples taken from patients with a proven infection of Chlamydia pneumoniae (n = 22), indicating species-specificity for all three tests. In patients with a polymerase chain reaction proven (n = 324) Ct infection, 75%, 70% and 68% were positive for IgG and 45%, 38% and 47%, positive for IgA as determined by the CtMp, CtL and CtS respectively. We conclude that the new synthetic peptide-based EIA tests are able to detect species-specific Ct antibodies, which are strongly correlated to (active) infection.