How is syphilis diagnosed?
A doctor can diagnose syphilis in a number of ways: • Recognizing its signs and symptoms and taking the correct tests. • Looking at the fluid from a syphilis sore or swollen lymph node under a microscope. This can only be done during primary and secondary syphilis when a patient has sores. • Testing the patient’s blood.
Your caregiver will ask you about your medical and sexual history. You will be asked about any STDs you have had before. He may ask about the health condition of your sexual partner or partners. You may also need any of the following: • Blood tests: You may need blood taken for tests. The blood can be taken from a blood vessel in your hand, arm, or the bend in your elbow. It is tested to see how your body is doing. It can give your caregivers more information about your health condition. You may need to have blood drawn more than once. • Chancre tests: This is a test where caregivers get sample tissues or fluids from the sores. They use a special piece of equipment called a dark field microscope to look for the bacteria that causes syphilis. • Spinal fluid exam: Sample fluid is taken from your spine and sent to lab for tests. This is done when your caregiver thinks that your nerves, brain, and spinal cord may be affected. Ask your caregiver for more information about lumbar puncture fo
Some health care providers can diagnose syphilis by examining material from a chancre (infectious sore) using a special microscope called a dark-field microscope. If syphilis bacteria are present in the sore, they will show up when observed through the microscope. A blood test is another way to determine whether someone has syphilis. Shortly after infection occurs, the body produces syphilis antibodies that can be detected by an accurate, safe, and inexpensive blood test. A low level of antibodies will likely stay in the blood for months or years even after the disease has been successfully treated. Because untreated syphilis in a pregnant woman can infect and possibly kill her developing baby, every pregnant woman should have a blood test for syphilis.
Syphilis can be diagnosed by scraping the base of the ulcer and looking under a special type of microscope (dark field microscope) for the spirochetes. However, since these microscopes are rarely detected, the diagnosis is most often made and treatment is prescribed based upon the appearance of the chancre. Diagnosis of syphilis is complicated by the fact that the causative organism cannot be grown in the laboratory. Therefore, cultures of affected areas cannot be used for diagnosis. Special blood tests can also be used to diagnose syphilis. The standard screening blood tests for syphilis are called the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) and Rapid Plasminogen Reagent (RPR) tests. These tests detect the body’s response to the infection, but not to the actual Treponema organism that causes the infection. These tests are thus referred to as non-treponemal tests. Although the non-treponemal tests are very effective in detecting evidence of infection, they can also produce a positi
Syphilis can be diagnosed by scraping the base of the ulcer and looking under a special type of microscope (dark-field microscope) for the spirochetes. However, since these microscopes are rarely detected, the diagnosis is most often made and treatment is prescribed based upon the appearance of the chancre. Diagnosis of syphilis is complicated by the fact that the causative organism cannot be grown in the laboratory. Therefore, cultures of affected areas cannot be used for diagnosis. Special blood tests can also be used to diagnose syphilis. The standard screening blood tests for syphilis are called the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) and Rapid Plasminogen Reagent (RPR) tests. These tests detect the body’s response to the infection, but not to the actual Treponema organism that causes the infection. These tests are thus referred to as nontreponemal tests. Although the nontreponemal tests are very effective in detecting evidence of infection, they can also produce a positive
