STUDY OF THE TPI TEST IN CLINICAL SYPHILIS: I. Untreated Early Symptomatic Syphilis

IT PREVIOUSLY has been reported^* that the Treponema pallidum immobilization (TPI) test may be nonreactive during the primary and secondary stages of syphilis. The lipid antigen serologic tests for syphilis, e. g., Kahn, Kolmer, VDRL slide, Rein-Bossak, also may be negative in the presence of dark-field-positive lesions of primary syphilis, but are invariably reactive during the secondary stage of syphilis.⁴

This study of previously untreated dark-field-positive primary and secondary syphilis patients was undertaken to compare the sensitivity of the TPI test, as modified by Portnoy, Harris, and Olansky,⁵ in these stages of syphilis with that of the VDRL slide flocculation quantitative and Rein-Bossak slide flocculation quantitative tests.

CLINICAL MATERIAL

Thirty patients with dark-field-positive primary syphilis and 20 patients with dark-field-positive secondary syphilis, who had no history of previous treatment for syphilis at any time, were studied. These were patients either of the AtlantaFulton