A technique for detecting Treponema pallidum through the use of membrane filters and immunofluorescence staining.

Danielsson (1965) has recently described the use of non-fluorescent membrane filters and immunofluorescence staining for the identification of certain bacteria in water. The principal advantages of the procedure were that it was rapid; that it could separate and identify a small number of organisms from a relatively large volume of fluid; and that it allowed a quantitative estimate of the concentration of organisms in the fluid. Recent reports of spiral organisms in the aqueous humour and cerebrospinal fluid of syphilitics (Girard, Goldman, Baumstark, and Stickle, 1967; Goldman and Girard, 1967, 1968; Smith and Israel, 1967a, 1967b, 1968) have stimulated our interest in constructing and calibrating immunofluorescence procedures which may be useful in the detection of such organisms (Chandler and Cannefax 1969); (Chandler and Norins, 1969). We report here the detection of Treponema pallidum by the use of membrane filters and immunofluorescence staining.