摘要
Objective: To evaluate the clinical utility of testing serum anti-treponema pallidum IgM antibody in the diagnosis of syphilis patients. Methods: Seventy-two cases of syphilis were tested for specific IgM antibody with ELISA, and the results were compared with RPR and TPPA.Results: The sensitivity of IgM antibody was 73.3 %(11/15) in primary syphilis, 88.9% (16/18) in sec-ondary syphilis, and there was no significant differ-ence between these values (x^2=1.6363, P>0.10). The sensitivity of IgM antibody in diagnosing latent syphi-lis was only 26.1% (6/23), much lower than the detec-tion rate in symptomatic earlv svDhilis (x^2=17.6189. P<0.005). RPR and TPPA were both 100% sensitive in latent and early symptomatic syphilis. Two were posi,five for IgM in the 16 cases who had received regular treatments 2 to 24 months before enrolled.Conclusions: Specific IgM antibody detection doees not appear superior to RPR and TPPA in diagnosing primary syphilis. The diagnosis of latent syphilis should mainly rely on RPR and TPPA, since there are low titers of IgM antibody at that stage. IgM antibody testing alone should not be recommended for monitor-ing syphilis development or treatment efficacy. Fur-ther studies should be concerned.
