The fluorescent treponemal antibody (FTA) test developed by Deacon, Falcone, and Harris (1957) and later modified with the absorption procedure by Hunter, Deacon, and Meyer (1964) has contributed much to the better diagnosis and control of syphilis in many parts of the world (WHO Scientific Group Report, 1970). The test combines the sensitivity and specificity of immunofluorescence with easy re...

BACKGROUND Because definitive methods for diagnosing primary syphilis are limited, it is important to optimize the sensitivity of serodiagnosis. OBJECTIVE To determine the most sensitive testing approach to the diagnosis of primary syphilis, using the commonly available serologic tests: the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) test and the Treponema pallidum particle agglutination (TP-...

  SUMMARY Hepatitis B Virus is one of the most important and common infections agent in the world and is prohably endemic in IRAN. In our study the 12 years prevalance (April 1981-December 1993) HBsAg and VDRL positive cases and their relationship with some epidemiologic factors such as sex, age, occupation among the blood donors of the Ramadan province (west of IRAN) have been considered. ...

Infections caused by hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) remain the leading most important health problems worldwide. Screening tests such as HBsAg, anti-HCV, anti-HIV and VDRL are mandatory tests to look at before transfusion of blood or blood components. In this study, donors who applied to our Blood Center in a nine-year period were retr...

In 1,129 patients attending the Department for Sexually Transmitted Diseases, the serum was examined by three screening tests (VDRL slide, RPCF, and TPHA) and twelve cases of syphilis (1 per cent. of patients attenting the clinic) were discovered. Six of these patients were considered to have latent syphilis (5 acquired, 1 congenital) and were detected only by the TPHA; all six cases were confi...

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) and Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) serological markers and the prevalence of VDRL positive subjects in a population of refugees of various nationalities, living in the Asylum Seeker Centre in Bari Palese, Southern Italy. METHODS The study was carried out in the period May-July...

Screening of blood and blood products is important to reduce the risk of transfusion transmitted infections (TTIs). The transfusion of unscreened or inadequately screened blood and blood products are the major source of TTIs. The aim of this paper is to find out the prevalence of TTIs in ABO blood groups and Rh type system. A total of 4128 blood donors were screened from January 2010 to April 2...

Blood donors with reactive screening test results are requested to come in for counseling by letter and telephone call. It has been noticed many donors responded to neither the letters nor the telephone calls. We evaluated 589 cases with reactive screening test results (208 positive for hepatitis C, 209 for hepatitis B, 85 for VDRL and 87 for HIV). In the hepatitis C positive group 61 donors (2...

Sera from 3028 patients attending a dermatological clinic were examined by the fluorescent treponemal antibody (FTA) test, the fluorescent antibody-absorbed (FTA-ABS) test, the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) test, and Kolmer's test. Eleven cases of late syphilis were found. Sera from 63 (2.08%) of the remaining 3017 patients showed non-specific results; these were found more freque...