Evidence map›Paper›PMID 35342368›Full record

ArticleCanada communicable disease report = Releve des maladies transmissibles au Canada2022

Laboratory evaluation of two point-of-care test kits for the identification of infectious syphilis.

Raymond Sw Tsang, Michelle Shuel, Kristy Hayden, Paul Van Caeseele, Derek Stein

Open access · diamondAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Canada communicable disease report = Releve des maladies transmissibles au Canada, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
8citing papers in PubMed
1.3field-weighted citation impact, top 21% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

8 citing papers in PubMed, 11 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Update on syphilis diagnostics.Current opinion in infectious diseases · 2025
    Review
  3. Syphilis Point-of-Care Tests (POCTs): Implementation Considerations in Canada.Journal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada = Journal officiel de l'Association pour la microbiologie medicale et l'infectiologie Canada · 2024
    Review
  4. Article
  5. Syphilis in Dermatology: Recognition and Management.American journal of clinical dermatology · 2023
    Article
  6. Point-of-Care Diagnostic forPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023
    Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Raymond Sw TsangSyphilis Diagnostic Unit, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, MB.
Michelle ShuelSyphilis Diagnostic Unit, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, MB.
Kristy HaydenSyphilis Diagnostic Unit, National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Winnipeg, MB.
Paul Van CaeseeleCadham Provincial Public Health Laboratory, Winnipeg, MB.
Derek SteinCadham Provincial Public Health Laboratory, Winnipeg, MB.
Public Health Agency of Canada · CAManitoba Health · CAPublic Health Laboratory

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Background: Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease that can have atypical clinical presentations. Conventional laboratory tests to confirm the diagnosis are not rapid enough to affect clinical decision on treatment and contact tracing. Rapid point-of-care tests (POCT) can be useful for control of infectious diseases; however, no POCT for syphilis detection is currently available in Canada. The aim of this study is to evaluate two POCTs (Reveal Methods: One hundred serum samples with known syphilis serological status, based on treponemal and non-treponemal test results, were analysed in the laboratory with two POCTs by two independent operators in a blind fashion. Results were analysed to evaluate their ability to detect infectious syphilis. Results: The Reveal Rapid TP Antibody POCT showed an overall sensitivity of 95.0% and a specificity of 83.3%, while the DPP Syphilis Screen and Confirm POCT showed a sensitivity of 87.5% and a specificity of 98.3%. Both POCTs gave a sensitivity of 100% on active syphilis samples with Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) titres of greater than 1:4, but their sensitivities decreased for samples with low VDRL titres. Both POCTs gave weakly or very weakly reactive results on 11.3%-25.0% of the treponemal antibody positive samples. Conclusion: This laboratory evaluation has shown promising results for both POCTs to detect infectious syphilis. Further evaluations in the field would be required to confirm this preliminary finding.

Indexed as

infectious syphilispoint-of-care tests

Identifiers

PMID35342368
PMCPMC8889920
OpenAlexW4214700142

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.