Unreliable Wassermann Reactions

Wassermann reactions simplified.

Most techniques at present in use for the Wassermann reaction require a great deal of bench and water bath space, are very time consuming, and put a considerable burden on those responsible for the preparation of glassware. The use of moulded perspex plates (M.R.C. pattern)* in this laboratory has cut down immensely the space and labour involved in doing routine Wassermann reactions, and has ad...

Biological false positive Wassermann reactions in Uganda.

In a country like Uganda where syphilis is common, yaws occurs, and many of the diseases known to cause false positive Wassermann reactions (such as malaria, leprosy, relapsing fever, smallpox vaccination, trypanosomiasis, lymphogranuloma venereum, and infectious hepatitis) exist, it seemed desirable to obtain some background information about the frequency of positive serological tests for syp...

Evaluation of cardiolipin antigen in routine Wassermann reactions.

Cardiolipin is a phospholipid and was isolated by Pangborn (1941, 1942) while investigating the nature of the antigenic material in beef heart muscle used in the Wassermann reaction. It was shown that cardiolipin was serologically active when used together with lecithin, and that the sensitivity of the reaction was enhanced by the addition of cholesterol. A monograph on cardiolipin antigen was ...

Wassermann Reaction

Concerning the Wassermann Reaction

tionally collected and kept for some time, is a very poor control. Some positive sera give a complete fixation of the usual one or more MHD of the complement in a 1 in 200 dilution; others can do so in 1 in 5 dilution only. The margin.of variation allowed for in this control, 5 to 200, is too wide to be useful in indicating whether the antigen-antibody systems involved in the reaction of comple...