Whole-blood counting immunoassay as a short-turnaround test for detection of hepatitis B surface antigen, anti-hepatitis C virus antibodies, and anti-Treponema pallidum antibodies.

Whole-blood samples were used for a counting immunoassay (CIA) with the aim of developing a short- turnaround test. After optimization of the CIA, hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), anti-hepatitis C virus antibodies (anti-HCV), and anti-Treponema pallidum antibodies (anti-TP) were detected as efficiently as by an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) with serum samples. The correlations between whole-blood CIA and serum EIA were 99.8, 97.1, and 99.4% for HBsAg, anti-HCV, and anti-TP, respectively. Whole-blood CIA may be of value when rapid screening of many samples is required.