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The rapid plasma reagin test (RPR test or RPR titer) is a type of rapid diagnostic test that looks for non-specific antibodies in the blood of the patient that may indicate an infection by syphilis or related non-venereal treponematoses. It is one of several nontreponemal tests for syphilis (along with the Wassermann test and the VDRL test).
With nontreponemal tests, false-positive reactions can occur for a large number of reasons, the most common of which is other infections, both viral and bacterial. Additionally these tests may show false-negative when the patient's antibody titer is very high due to a hook effect (also called a prozone effect).
Replacement tests such as the VDRL test and the RPR test, initially based on flocculation techniques (Hinton), have been shown to produce far fewer false positive results. [citation needed] Indeed, the "biologic false positives" of modern tests usually indicate a serious alternate condition, often an autoimmune disease.
False positive COVID-19 tests—when your result is positive, but you aren’t actually infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus—are a real, if unlikely, possibility, especially if you don’t perform ...
The rapid plasma reagin (RPR) test uses the same antigen as the VDRL, but in that test, it has been bound to several other molecules, including a carbon particle to allow visualization of the flocculation reaction without the need of a microscope. Many other medical conditions can produce false positive results, including some viruses ...
A scientific analysis published in The BMJ in 2021 notes that these tests “produce very few false positive results” and a lot of the accuracy surrounding them depends on factors like how well ...
An important practical relevance of the phenomenon is as a type of interference that plagues certain immunoassays and nephelometric assays, resulting in false negatives or inaccurately low results. Other common forms of interference include antibody interference, cross-reactivity and signal interference.
A false positive Covid-19 test result can happen, but it’s rare, says Brian Labus, Ph.D., M.P.H., assistant professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Public Health.