Gonococcal Complement-fixation Test in Complicated and Uncomplicated Gonorrhoea.

The complement-fixation reaction with gonococcal antigen (gonococcal complement-fixation test: GCFI) is based on the same serological principle, and has been known for about as long, as the Wassermann reaction. Up to the 1940's the GCFT was widely employed, but as improvements in cultivation techniques for gonococci were developed, interest in the complement-fixation reaction diminished. At present the reaction is no longer performed at the state public health laboratories in the USA. During the nineteen-thirties a vast number of investigations on the GCFT were recorded, among which the comprehensive monograph of Kristjansen (1930) from Denmark should be mentioned. However, very few reports on the GCFT reaction have been presented recently, and no Swedish survey has been made. A contributory factor to the indifference in which the GCFT is held may be its presumed limited specificity. Opinions are here divided and many point out that when used correctly, at least for differential diagnosis of gonorrhoeal complications, the reaction is still of value. We have re-examined the GCFT because of the distressing increase in the number of persons with gonorrhoea during recent years (Gisslen, Hellgren, and Starck, 1961; Willcox, 1963), and the need of a differential diagnostic tool. We have primarily sought to answer the following questions: