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The Venereal Disease Research Laboratory test (VDRL) is a blood test for syphilis and related non-venereal treponematoses that was developed by the eponymous US laboratory. The VDRL test is used to screen for syphilis (it has high sensitivity ), whereas other, more specific tests are used to diagnose the disease.
The fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption (FTA-ABS) test is a diagnostic test for syphilis.Using antibodies specific for the Treponema pallidum species, such tests would be assumed to be more specific than non-treponemal testing such as VDRL but have been shown repeatedly to be sensitive but not specific for the diagnosis of neurosyphilis in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).
This reaction is the foundation of “nontreponemal” assays such as the VDRL (Venereal Disease Research Laboratory) test and Rapid Plasma Reagin (RPR) test. Both these test are flocculation type tests that use an antigen-antibody interaction. The complexes remain suspended in solution and therefore visible due to the lipid based antigens.
The rapid plasma reagin test (RPR test or RPR titer) is a type of rapid diagnostic test that looks for non-specific antibodies in the blood of the patient that may indicate an infection by syphilis or related non-venereal treponematoses. It is one of several nontreponemal tests for syphilis (along with the Wassermann test and the VDRL test).
Many of the Laboratories using the samples from the Guatemalan syphilis experiments were later given samples from the Tuskegee syphilis experiments. Due to a lack of regulations involving laboratory samples, it is unknown if the samples from the studies are still being used today; however, records show that they were in use by at least 1957. [31]
In the mother, a serologic diagnosis of syphilis is made using a nontreponemal test for syphilis such as the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory test or Rapid plasma reagin (RPR) followed by a treponemal test, such as the Treponema pallidum particle agglutination assay (TP-PA) (the sequence of testing may be reversed with a treponemal test ...
Treponema pallidum, formerly known as Spirochaeta pallida, is a microaerophilic, gram-negative, spirochaete bacterium with subspecies that cause the diseases syphilis, bejel (also known as endemic syphilis), and yaws. [1] It is known to be transmitted only among humans and baboons. [2]
Nontreponemal tests are used initially and include venereal disease research laboratory (VDRL) and rapid plasma reagin (RPR) tests. False positives on the nontreponemal tests can occur with some viral infections, such as varicella (chickenpox) and measles .