Evaluate performance of the Abbott chemiluminescent microparticle immunoassay assay for detection of syphilis infection in Chinese blood donors

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: To prevent Treponema Pallidum (TP) transmission from blood transfusion, enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (EIA) for anti‐TP has been widely used in routine blood donation screening in China for many years. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of the Abbott CMIA assay for detection of anti‐TP in Chinese blood donors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 2420 plasma samples, already routinely screened for anti‐TP by two different EIAs, from four blood Centers were tested for anti‐TP by Abbott CMIA. Subsequently, all samples with positive results by one or both EIAs and/or by Abbott CMIA were subjected to confirmatory testing (CT) using recombinant immunoblot assay (RIBA) or Treponema Pallidum particle agglutination assay (TPPA). TP infection was defined by a RIBA or TPPA positive. RESULTS: Compared with two EIAs strategy, Abbott CMIA showed a relatively best sensitivity as 98.80% (95% CI: 97.44%‐100.16%) and a relatively best specificity as 99.58% (95% CI: 99.30%‐99.85%), yielding the best consistency (99.49%) between anti‐TP CT results with the highest κ value of .98. CONCLUSION: This is the first study to evaluate the performance of the Abbott CMIA assays for detection of syphilis in Chinese blood donors. Our results suggested that CMIA performed better than both EIAs, and implementation of CMIA replacing two different EIA reagents might help to further reduce the risk of transfusion‐transmitted TP infection, decrease unnecessary blood waste and loss of blood donors.