Dynamic changes in serum transaminases in patients with syphilis.

Recently assays of glycolytic enzymes and transaminases have significantly expanded the diagnostic possibilities of internal medicine. Thus one may confirm myocardial infarction by serum transaminase activity within the first few hours in at least 95 per cent. of all cases. The testing of these enzymes has also improved the diagnosis of virus hepatitis and other liver diseases, and their undoubted prognostic and diagnostic value in dermatology has also been investigated. The studies of many authors have shown that transaminase tests are of limited clinical value in all dermatoses except dermatomyositis (de Moragas, Perry, and Fleisher, 1957; Wust, Langrehr, and Horn, 1958; Wust, 1960; Vickers, 1961; Tickner, Mier, and McCabe, 1961; Korting, Weber, and Werle, 1962; Agostini and Zanca, 1962; Prodanov and Spirov, 1965). Our own studies showed an increase in serum transaminases in fresh secondary syphilis, and we therefore undertook the follow-up of the aspartate (SGOT) and alanine (SGPT) transaminases in a larger series of 55 cases of syphilis before and after treatment.