Biological False Positive Reactions Research Articles

Pregnancy: A factor responsible for biologic false positive reactions as determined by the treponema pallidum immobilization test

Pregnancy: A factor responsible for biologic false positive reactions as determined by the treponema pallidum immobilization test

Effect of Room Temperature on Serologic Tests for Syphilis

The effects of temperature on the results obtained in the older serological tests for syphilis employing lipoidal antigens is well known. In fact, the differences in test results obtained when certain tests were performed at different temperatures served not only as the basis for attempted differentiation of syphilitic from so-called biologic false positive reactions (Kahn, 1940), but also for determining the relative specificity of different lots of lipoidal antigens (Kline and Suessenguth, 1946). Other workers have shown that test sensitivity is affected not only by the temperature at which the antigen-saline emulsions are prepared (Cannefax and others, 1953) but also by the temperature of the glassware and reagents (Fugazzotto, 1953). Exposure of blood or serum samples to temperatures above those employed for refrigeration increases the rate of haemolysis on the one hand and depresses the serological titre on the other, in proportion to the duration of exposure and the elevation of temperature. Most of the widely used serological tests for syphilis, with the exception of those performed at 4 to 60 C. or 370 C., are carried out at so-called room temperature , but this term becomes meaningless when the wide seasonal variations in laboratory temperatures which occur nationally and internationally are considered. In order to show the effect of these temperature

Treponema pallidum immobilization test in the evaluation of patients with positive serologic tests for syphilis.

ONE of the most perplexing problems that the physician may be called upon to decide is that of the patient with a positive serologic test for syphilis and no other evidence of the disease. Too often the decision is made to give treatment, with the idea that today this is relatively innocuous and easy to administer. Such a course has resulted in the unnecessary treatment of many persons with biologic false-positive reactions. Such therapy has labeled these people as syphilitic, frequently with considerable psychologic, sociologic and economic trauma. Another group of physicians have responded to the problem by assuming that . . .

Lupus erythematosus; serologic and chemical aspects.

IT IS THE purpose of this paper to discuss the problem of the biologic false positive reactions in the serologic test for syphilis in lupus erythematosus and to report the results of a study of this problem. The serum protein changes in lupus erythematosus will be considered, and their possible relation to the production of biologic false positive reactions will be discussed. The most complete review of the literature on the problem of the false positive reaction in lupus erythematosus was given by C. J. White 1 in 1947. Gennerich 2 was probably the first to suggest its existence. Keil 3 reported 10 cases of lupus erythematosus with positive reactions in Wassermann tests of the blood and made the statements that reactions to serologic tests may fluctuate widely with different technics and that a high Wassermann titer carried a bad prognosis. In 1 of his cases there

Biologic false positive reactions in serologic tests for syphilis

The problem of biologic false positive reactions in serologic tests for syphilis has been considered in relation to certain basic clinical and immunologic aspects. These include the clinical definition and recognition of a biologic false positive reaction, the requirements of a valid serologic method of differentiation and the immunologic nature of the antibodies and antigens. Recent developments in the serologic diagnosis of syphilis are reviewed and critically considered, with special reference to the introduction of cardiolipin and the euglobulin-inhibition test. The present status of the problem of biologic false positive reactions has been evaluated, with consideration of the possible clinical and immunologic limitations to complete resolution of the problem.

NONSPECIFIC REACTIONS IN ROUTINE BLOOD TESTING FOR SYPHILIS

In a fourteen month period from December 1943 to February 1945 an investigation was sponsored by the Committee on Medical Research and the Venereal Disease Subcommittee of the National Research Council, supported by a grant from the Office of Scientific Research and Development, into the problem of the nonspecific positive (so-called biologic false positive) reaction for syphilis. The bloods of Red Cross donors at the Philadelphia Blood Donor Center supplied the material, and the Institute for the Control of Syphilis at the University of Pennsylvania and the Graduate Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania conducted the case investigations. In all, 210,261 blood specimens were tested in a nine months period, and 79 of the donors showing definite positives (unsatisfactory bloods) were subjected to subsequent critical clinical and laboratory examination. The studied series was enlarged to 98 cases by additional persons from private practice in whom possible nonspecific positive reactions for

False-Positive Hinton Reactions Following Chicken Pox

THE evaluation of the specificity of the various tests for the serologic diagnosis of syphilis has gone through two phases. At one time both the complement-fixation and flocculation tests were considered to be so highly specific that some states accepted them as legal proof of a previous or existing syphilitic infection. During the last fifteen years there has been a re-evaluation of these tests and an increasing appreciation of the fact that certain nonsyphilitic conditions are capable of producing biologic false-positive reactions. Furthermore, the possibility of technical false-positive reactions has been repeatedly demonstrated by the interstate serologic surveys conducted by . . .

Biologic false positive reactions for syphilis associated with hyperproteinemia: Cardon, L. C., Atlas, D. H., et al.: Arch. Dermat. & Syph. 46: 713, 1942

Biologic false positive reactions for syphilis associated with hyperproteinemia: Cardon, L. C., Atlas, D. H., et al.: Arch. Dermat. & Syph. 46: 713, 1942

BIOLOGIC FALSE POSITIVE REACTIONS FOR SYPHILIS ASSOCIATED WITH HYPERPROTEINEMIA

The problem of the false positive reaction to a serologic test for syphilis is of great importance, especially with the advent of routine serologic tests in premarital examinations and selective service examinations and in connection with the antisyphilis campaign of the United States Public Health Service. A false positive reaction may be either technical (due to laboratory variations) or biologic. The biologic type of false positive reaction is rarely encountered in normal persons (1 in 4,000); when it does occur it is thought to be due to the presence of a reagin-like substance which has recently been isolated from lower animals. 1 This report is concerned with the more frequent type of biologic false positive reaction, that which has been reported for persons with diseases other than syphilis, viz., yaws (100 per cent), leprosy (40 to 80 per cent), malaria (100 per cent at some time during the infection) and

BIOLOGIC FALSE POSITIVE SEROLOGIC REACTIONS IN TESTS FOR SYPHILIS

Many infectious diseases have been reported as causing biologic false positive serologic reactions for syphilis. That some of them (malaria, leprosy and infectious mononucleosis) cause such reactions has been well established. Other diseases, e. g., relapsing fever, rat bite fever, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, pneumonia, Vincent's infections, malignant conditions (particularly cancer of the tongue), subacute bacterial endocarditis, glanders, Weil's disease, leishmaniasis, lymphogranuloma venereum, trypanosomiasis, typhus fever, vaccinia and infections of the upper respiratory tract, as well as injections of horse serum, have from time to time been suggested as causing such serologic reactions, but the evidence is as yet inconclusive. From a review of the literature it is impossible to arrive at any conclusions regarding the percentage of biologic false positive reactions obtained in any of these diseases except leprosy and infectious mononucleosis. Until recently it was thought that biologic false positive reactions were obtained in only 10 to 15 per