Recent progress in the serum diagnosis of syphilis / Howard Fox.

  • Fox, Howard, 1873-1947.
Date:
1910
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Recent progress in the serum diagnosis of syphilis / Howard Fox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    tive to negative. In comparing the results of the reac- tion in cases that had formerly been treated it was found that those that had been thoroughly treated gave a greater number of negative reactions than the ones in whom the treatment had been less thorough. The significance of a negative reaction from the ther- apeutic standpoint depends largely on the time that has elapsed since the infection, and since the last injection of mercury. It cannot be judged from the test alone whether we have to deal with latency or with an actual cure of the disease. A negative reaction during the first two or three years seems to be generally considered of small value, if in later years repeated negatives are obtained in a person who shows no clinical manifesta- tions, and who has not recently taken mercury (prefer- ably five months), it would be considered by some that the disease had been cured. It should certainly be looked on as a most favorable result. FIELD OF APPLICATION OF SERODIAGNOSTIC TEST The large amount of investigation on the Wasser- mann reaction during the past year has been productive of some results of very practical value. Much light has been thrown on various questions, such as the problems of syphilitic heredity, prostitution, and the reliability of the test for post-mortem diagnosis. Some valuable con- tributions relating to the special branches of medicine have also appeared which tend either to prove or to dis- prove the relationship of certain diseases to syphilis. Of great importance are the results that have been obtained in diseased conditions of the heart and arteries. Donath70 concludes that the syphilitic etiology of aortic insufficiency and aneurism, as well as cases of clinically suspicious mesaortitis, is proven by having obtained a positive Wassermann reaction in 85 per cent, of the cases. Bruckner and Oalesco80 think that syphilis plays the principal role in the etiology of aortic insufficiency, as they found a positive reaction in 17 out of 22 cases. The five patients giving a negative reaction were younger persons, from 14 to 20 years of age, who had suffered from repeated attacks of rheumatism. From an exami- 79. Donath, Iv.: Ueber die Wassermannscbe Reaktion bel Aortenerkrankungen und die Bedcutung der provokatorischen Queck- silbersbehandlung fiir die serologische Diagnose der Lues, Berl. kiln. Wchnschr., 1909, xlvi, 2015. 80. Bruckner. .T., and Galesco : Syphilis et insuffisanee aortique, Compt. rend. Soc. de blol., 1910, lxviii, 74.