title: [Syphilis. An up-to-date physio-biological view of the main topics. IV.--The problem of the treatment by penicillin (author's transl)].
abstract: Can penicillin be considered as an infallible treatment for syphilis? Some practitioners have hoped and even believed that this antibiotic would be able to eradicate this infection. To support their thesis, they have put forward an uniform standard therapeutic plan capable of being applied to any stage of the disease and which is based upon the following syllogism: a) all T.p. would divide every 30-33 hours. b) a level of penicillinemia of 0.03 IU/ml would destroy all Treponema when they divide. c) thus, a penicillin therapy administered 3 times giving such levels in serum during a period of 33 hours would produce a bacteriological sterilization of the infected organism. But statistics have shown that these conceptions were wrong. As a matter of fact: 1) every biological research has clearly proved that it is wrong to assert such a rhythm of division for all T.p. Since this multiplication is submitted to a succession of factors that we know more or less well, thus, during the latency phase, T.p. vegetate inside the tissues without apparently multiplying so quickly. 2) For lack of being able to cultivate T.p., it is not possible to state which is the activity level of penicillin on this germ. 3) Finally, the kinetic elimination of penicillin varies extremely, particularly depending on the drug which is used with patients, and on the localization of these germs. All experimental and clinical studies agree and insist on the fact that penicillin therapy must be given early in the infection, at a prolonged and high dose; results having to be estimated on the serological answers, especially with repeated TPI and FTA tests. As far as the late phases of the disease are concerned, for lack of being able to cultivate T. pallidum and because we do not have any absolute criterion of any bacteriological sterilization, the serological answers being often positive, circumspection has always to be a rule: it is better to admit what we do not know rather than to assert without any proof.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D010403:Penicillin Resistance; D010406:Penicillins / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D011817:Rabbits; D013587:Syphilis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000382:microbiology; D014210:Treponema pallidum / Q000187:drug effects
chemical_list: D010406:Penicillins
vernacular_title: La syphilis. Actualités physio-biologiques. IV.--Le problème de la pénicillinothérapie.