Improving the screening of blood donors with syphilis rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and rapid plasma reagin (RPR) in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC)

TY - JOUR

T1 - Improving the screening of blood donors with syphilis rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and rapid plasma reagin (RPR) in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC)

AU - Sarkodie, F.

AU - Hassall, O.

AU - Owusu-Dabo, E.

AU - Owusu-Ofori, S.

AU - Bates, I.

AU - Bygbjerg, I. C.

AU - Owusu-Ofori, A.

AU - Harritshøj, L. H.

AU - Ullum, H.

N1 - © 2016 British Blood Transfusion Society.

PY - 2017/2/1

Y1 - 2017/2/1

N2 - BACKGROUND: Syphilis testing conventionally relies on a combination of non-treponemal and treponemal tests. The primary objective of this study was to describe the positive predictive value (PPV) of a screening algorithm in a combination of a treponemal rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and rapid plasma reagin (RPR) test at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Ghana.MATERIALS AND METHODS: From February 2014 to January 2015, 5 mL of venous blood samples were taken from 16 016 blood donors and tested with a treponemal RDT; 5 mL of venous blood was taken from 526 consenting initial syphilis sero-reactive blood donors. These RDT reactive samples were confirmed with an algorithm, applying the Vitros(®) /Abbott-Architect(®) algorithm as gold standard.RESULTS: A total of 478 of 526 RDT reactive donors were confirmed positive for syphilis, making a PPV of 90·9%. Of the 172 (32·7%) donors who were also RPR positive, 167 were confirmed, resulting in a PPV of 97·1%. The PPV of the combined RDT and RPR (suspected active syphilis) testing algorithm was highest among donors at an enhanced risk of syphilis, family/replacement donors (99·9%), and among voluntary donors above 25 years (98·6%).DISCUSSION: Screening of blood donors by combining syphilis RDT and RPR with relatively good PPV may provide a reasonable technology for LMIC that has a limited capacity for testing and can contribute to the improvement of blood safety with a minimal loss of donors.

AB - BACKGROUND: Syphilis testing conventionally relies on a combination of non-treponemal and treponemal tests. The primary objective of this study was to describe the positive predictive value (PPV) of a screening algorithm in a combination of a treponemal rapid diagnostic test (RDT) and rapid plasma reagin (RPR) test at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH), Ghana.MATERIALS AND METHODS: From February 2014 to January 2015, 5 mL of venous blood samples were taken from 16 016 blood donors and tested with a treponemal RDT; 5 mL of venous blood was taken from 526 consenting initial syphilis sero-reactive blood donors. These RDT reactive samples were confirmed with an algorithm, applying the Vitros(®) /Abbott-Architect(®) algorithm as gold standard.RESULTS: A total of 478 of 526 RDT reactive donors were confirmed positive for syphilis, making a PPV of 90·9%. Of the 172 (32·7%) donors who were also RPR positive, 167 were confirmed, resulting in a PPV of 97·1%. The PPV of the combined RDT and RPR (suspected active syphilis) testing algorithm was highest among donors at an enhanced risk of syphilis, family/replacement donors (99·9%), and among voluntary donors above 25 years (98·6%).DISCUSSION: Screening of blood donors by combining syphilis RDT and RPR with relatively good PPV may provide a reasonable technology for LMIC that has a limited capacity for testing and can contribute to the improvement of blood safety with a minimal loss of donors.

U2 - 10.1111/tme.12363

DO - 10.1111/tme.12363

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 27723157

SN - 0958-7578

VL - 27

SP - 52

EP - 59

JO - Transfusion Medicine

JF - Transfusion Medicine

IS - 1

ER -