Group Antibodies in Fluorescent Treponemal Antibody (FTA) Test**From the Institute for Dermatology and Venereology, Budapest, Hungary.

Treponema pallidum haemagglutination test for syphilis. Evaluation of a modified micro-method.

“…Expensive equipment and skilled staff are necessary for the execution of the TPI and FTA-ABS tests and for the interpretation of results. Criticisms have been made of the immunological specificity of the sorbent used in the FTA-ABS test by several workers (Cannefax, Hanson, and Skaggs, 1968;Rathlev, 1968;Wilkinson and Ferguson, 1968), and of its failure to remove all group reactive antibody from some sera (Kiraly, Jobbagy, and Kovats, 1967;Wilkinson and Wiseman, 1971). False positive FTA-ABS tests have also been reported (Fife, 1964;Buchanan and Haserick, 1970;Kraus, Haserick, and Lantz, 1970).…”

Presidential Address to the M.S.S.V.D: Systemic disease and the biological false positive reaction

“…There appears to be no doubt that false positive reactions may occur, and Wilkinson and Ferguson (1968) have shown that sorbent may not remove all the group antitreponemal antibody present in strongly reactive sera. Furthermore, Kiraly, Jobbagy, and Kovats (1967) have demonstrated that absorption of sera with Reiter treponemes does not always remove group reactivity against all treponemes, and it is probable that more than one group antitreponemal antibody may be present in the serum.…”

Absorbed fluorescent treponemal antibody (FTA-ABS) test. Comparison with the FTA-200 and TPI tests on 1,056 problem sera.

“…The heated culture filtrate is a very crude product, and although it works well in practice, further studies with a view to its isolation and purification are desirable. Work by Kiraly, Jobbagy, and Kovats (1967) suggests that absorption of sera by Reiter treponemes may not necessarily remove reactivity with all other cultivable treponemes so that a sorbing agent prepared from a wider range of these organisms might be advantageous.…”