Sexual Health | Pathology | Antigen and antibody tests

Antigen and antibody tests
Session overview
Description
This session describes how antigen and antibody tests are used to diagnose and manage sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The methodology, advantages and limitations of these tests are discussed with examples from clinical practice.

Learning objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• explain how antigen and antibody tests are performed
• describe the role of antigen and antibody tests in the diagnosis and management of STIs
• describe the advantages of antigen and antibody tests
• describe the limitations of antigen and antibody tests

Prerequisites
Before commencing this session you should complete the following session:

• Module 2/Interpreting laboratory tests (260-0018)

Non-laboratory trained healthcare professionals have little experience of how a result is produced and may accept it without question.

Knowledge of how the tests are performed, their interpretation and shortcomings, is essential and forms part of the quality assurance process. To avoid errors, concerns should be raised if a result does not fit with the clinical picture.

This session endeavours to make the reader more familiar with serological (antibody and/or antigen) tests employed to make a diagnosis of an STI.