VDRL – titer (CMT) (Syphilis, Athashang) Screening

General Information

Syphilis is an infectious, contagious disease caused by the bacterium Treponema Pallidum and is transmitted through sexual contact, blood transfusion, and the placental route.

Clinical aspects: After entering the body, the pathogen easily spreads through the lymphatic system. The incubation period lasts from 15 days to 3 months.

Clinical manifestations of the disease are:

• Early stage of infection
• Late - non-infectious stage

Each form can include two stages:

• Primary, secondary and early latent (hidden) syphilis
• Late latent (hidden) syphilis and tertiary syphilis

Primary syphilis It is clinically manifested by genital chancre (nodular formation) and adenopathy (enlargement of lymph nodes). The chancre will regress within 2-6 weeks, even without specific treatment.

Secondary syphilis It is clinically manifested by skin and mucous discharge (on the hands and feet, neck and face), sometimes accompanied by such symptoms as: fever. Joint pain, polyadenopathy (enlargement of lymph nodes), hepatitis, uveitis (inflammation of the vascular lining of the eye).

Clinical manifestations begin 6 weeks to 6 months after the development of chancre. Symptoms may last from a few days to several weeks, with intermittent periods of symptom-free periods. In untreated cases, the said phase lasts 1-2 years.

Early and later stages of latent (hidden) syphilis It is going on without clinical signs. At this stage, diagnostics is possible only with serological studies.

I hear syphilis  Clinically, it is characterized by skin gums, neurological (spinal cord degeneration, generalized paresis), cardiovascular (syphilitic aortitis, aortic aneurysm, coronary stenosis) manifestations. Symptoms of this stage appear 4-40 years after the initial injury. Through antibiotic therapy in the initial stages, tertiary syphilis is practically no longer found.

Congenital syphilis. There is a risk of transplacental transmission of Treponema pallidum infection. Diagnosis in pregnant women is complicated because there is a possibility of getting a false positive answer. In this case, the determination of FTA-ABS IgM or EIA-IgM antibodies allows to distinguish the residual antibodies of previously transferred syphilis from current syphilis.

The following research methods are used to diagnose and monitor the effectiveness of treatment for Treponema pallidum infection:

• Direct detection of the pathogen: microscopy, direct immunofluorescence reaction (RIF), molecular methods (PCR analysis);
• Indirect detection of the pathogen (serological markers of infection).

Is based on the serological diagnostics of syphilis Treponemal and non-treponemal tests.

The primary immune response is represented by IgM-type specific anti-treponemic antibodies, which are detected at the end of the 2nd week of infection; Anti-treponemic IgG antibodies appear later, in the 4th week. Thus, most patients have IgM and IgG antibodies in their blood at the onset of clinical symptoms. Specific IgM antibody levels decline rapidly after adequate treatment for early syphilis, but persistence of specific IgG antibodies persists until the end of life. The determination of this type of antibody is included in a set of treponemic tests.

Rapid test for syphilis antibodies  Used to qualitatively and selectively detect antibodies against T. pallidum (IgG, IgM and IgA) in whole blood, serum or plasma. The sensitivity of the test is 99.54%, the specificity - 100%.

Research material

Venous blood