Page 347 - Critical Maternity & Newborn Health Nursing

Fig.,( 46 ) Tertiary stage of syphilis adopted from

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Diagnosis

The material obtained from primary or secondary lesions is examined by dark-

ground illumination to detect spirochetes. The serological teats for syphilis include

2 groups. The first group are nonspecific or nontreponemal tests as the Wasserman

reaction test (WR) the venereal disease research laboratory test(VDRL) and rapid

plasma 346opula test (RPR). The specific or treponemal tests include the
fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption test(fta-abs). a nonspecific test

e.g. VDRL is performed and if positive a specific treponemal test is done to confirm
or to exclude the diagnosis of syphilis. The serological test starts to be positive 2

weeks after appearance of the chancre and may be negative in very late syphilis.

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