title: [Prevalence of false seropositivity for syphilis in a population of pregnant women].
abstract: A retrospective chart review of 439 pregnant women with positive syphilis serology detected with VDRL was made. One hundred twenty two women (27.7%), aged 17 to 43 years and with a gestational age ranging from 8 to 38 weeks, had false positive VDRL tests. None of these patients had a titer over 1:4 and 65% had a weakly reactive VDRL. Forty percent of women were diagnosed as having an early latent syphilis and 20% as late latent syphilis. Due to the high frequency of these later diagnoses in women with VDRL titers below 1:2, with no risk factors and negative sexual partners, post partum follow up is essential to detect cases with false positive FTA-ABs tests.
authors.affiliation: Servico de Dermatología, Hospital del Salvador, Santiago de Chile.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lobos
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ortega
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vera
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Poblete
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Saéz
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005189:False Positive Reactions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011247:Pregnancy; D011251:Pregnancy Complications, Infectious / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013587:Syphilis / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D013588:Syphilis Serodiagnosis / Q000379:methods*
vernacular_title: Prevalencia de serología falsa positiva para sífilis en una población de embarazadas.