Objective To assess the sensitivity

specificity

and feasibility of 4 recombinant Treponema pallidum antigen-based rapid tests in the diagnosis of syphilis.Methods A total of 970 outpatients were selected from the Sexually Transmitted Diseases Centre of Peking Union Medical College Hospital.Venous blood was collected and serum was extracted.T.pallidum antibodies in whole blood

anticoagulant whole blood

and serum were detected using 4 recombinant T.pallidum antigen-based rapid tests.T.pallidum haemagglutination test（TPHA） was considered as the gold standard for the detection of T.pallidum specific antibodies in serum.The sensitivities and specificities of four methods were analyzed.Results The sensitivities and specificities of Abbott Determine Syphilis TP test

SD-BIOLINE Syphilis 3.0 test

VISITECT-SYPHILIS test

and Syphicheck-WB test for serum specimens were 100% and 98.9%

95.7% and 98.0%

94.6% and 98.2%

68.1% and 98.9%;for whole blood were 74.1% and 99.5%

87.9% and 99.4%

73.2% and 99.7%

64.7% and 99.7%.The observed sensitivities of the 4 rapid diagnosis tests were not significantly different with TPHA（P>0.05）.Conclusions The 4 rapid tests show good performance and characteristics in the diagnosis of syphilis.Furthermore

they are more sensitive for serum specimens than whole blood.