Fluorescent treponemal antibody tests on cerebrospinal fluid.

Reports of fluorescent treponemal antibody (FTA) testing of cerebrospinal fluids have appeared in the literature from time to time (Harris, Bossak, Deacon, and Bunch, 1960; Vaisman and Hamelin, 1961; Niel and Fribourg-Blanc, 1964). It has become accepted practice in our laboratory to perform an FTA test, without absorption with Reiter treponemes, on undiluted cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). As no established technique for the fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption (FTA-ABS) test on CSF has appeared at the time of writing this paper, the test has been carried out in our laboratory using the same techniques as for serum. This report concerns our experience with these tests in a routine testing laboratory.