A 26 year old woman with systemic lupus erythematosus, including malar rash, photosensitivity, and arthritis, developed a cerebrovascular accident and acute myocardial infarction. High titres to antinuclear factor, anti-DNA antibodies, positive Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) test, and anticardiolipin antibodies were found in her serum. A possible association between the presence of...

BACKGROUND Current status of external quality assessment (EQA) of laboratory tests for syphilis in Korea was analyzed to find out the problems that should be improved in the future. METHODS Based on the data from the external quality assessment program performed twice a year by the Immunoserology Subcommittee of the Korean Association of Quality Assurance for Clinical Laboratory from the year...

The discovery of cardiolipin (Pangborn, 1941a) as the active agent in antigens for sero-reactions for syphilis enabled the production of chemically defined antigens, composed of cardiolipin, purified lecithin (Pangborn, 1941b), and cholesterol. Among the many tube and slide flocculation reactions based on the use of cardiolipin antigens, the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) slide flo...

Experimental ocular and neurosyphilis has been investigated in this laboratory during the past 3 years in three species-rabbits, owl monkeys, and squirrel monkeys. Rabbits were selected as a control to the primate experiments because of the large available literature concerning experimental syphilis in the rabbit. During the course of these studies, it became apparent that many rabbits purchase...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES The clinical diagnosis of neurosyphilis is very rarely encountered today in the developed world although syphilis remains a significant health problem in few areas of the industrialized countries and in most of the third world nations. This apparent decline may be due to increase in number of asymptomatic neurosyphilis and cases presenting as subtle, illdefined syndrom...

To cite: Ferreira ST, Correia C, Marçal M, et al. BMJ Case Rep Published online: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/ bcr-2016-216148 DESCRIPTION A 34-week-old gestational baby boy, weighing 2104 g, was born with multiple organ dysfunction and a skin rash. During pregnancy, the mother had a reactive venereal disease research laboratory (VDRL) test (1:16) that didn’t receive any treatmen...

OBJECTIVES Syphilis outbreaks have recently been reported in the United Kingdom, some of which have included cohorts of HIV positive individuals. As a result we commenced 3 monthly screening of syphilis serology (STS) for HIV positive patients having routine follow up blood tests. We assessed if there was an increased number of individuals being screened and also whether the screening programme...