Modification of the system of screening for antisyphilis antibodies in a blood transfusion centre, featuring a miniaturisation of the Treponema pallidum haemagglutination assay.

A modified, miniaturised version of the Fujizoki Treponema pallidum haemagglutination assay (TPHA) is described. The method is fast, sensitive, specific, and very economical. During a test period of one year, use of the method gave rise to a 67% increase in confirmed positives among new donor sera and a 112.5% increase among the antenatal sera over the numbers that would have been detected using a cardiolipin test alone. With the new donor sera, the rate of confirmed positives detected during the test period was 150% greater than that of 1980, when a cardiolipin test alone was used (0.05 greater than p greater than 0.02 (chi 2 test)).