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Updated: May 16, 2026
Procedures for In Vitro Cultivation of Treponema pallidum, the Syphilis Spirochete
Published on: January 24, 2025
[Application of TRUST, TP-ELISA and TPPA in the serologic diagnosis of syphilis]
Ting-Ting Wang1, Qin Li, Jing-Feng Yu
1Department of Clinical Laboratory, Wuxi People's Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University, Wuxi, Jiangsu 214023, China.
Objective:
To investigate the application value of toluidine red unheated serum test (TRUST), treponema pallidum enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (TP-ELISA) and treponema pallidum particle agglutination assay (TPPA) in the serologic diagnosis of syphilis.
Methods:
We collected serum samples from 12 622 inpatients, 2 253 outpatients and 1 500 subjects in the medical examination center, and screened them by TRUST and TP-ELISA, followed by quantitative tests using TRUST and TPPA.
Results:
Among the 16 375 cases, clinically diagnosed syphilis was confirmed in 384, with a positive rate of 100% either by TRUST (1:2 -1 :16) or TPPA (1:80 - 1:2 560), and 92.2% by TP-ELISA.
Conclusion:
TP-ELISA and TRUST should be simultaneously used for syphilis screening, but not TP-ELISA alone, and the results should be confirmed by TPPA. The combination of the three methods plays a valuable role in reducing the misdiagnosis and missed diagnosis, and contributes to the early and accurate diagnosis of syphilis.
