title: Latent syphilis among inpatients in an urban area of China.
abstract: We aimed at investigating the epidemiological features of latent syphilis among inpatients in an urban area of China. During the period of Jan 1999 to Dec 2007, 146 inpatients were positive for treponema pallidum particle agglutination (TPPA) assay from 22,454 inpatients who were admitted to the China Meitan General Hospital. The number of latent syphilis increased steadily during this period of time. From the 146 TPPA positive inpatients, 137 inpatients were diagnosed as latent syphilis. The number of male patients with latent syphilis was slightly more than the female, but there was no statistical significance (P>0.01). The number of male patients over 60 years old was 42 (30.66%), which was higher than other age groups (p<0.05). The number of female patients at the age range of 20-29 years was 20 (14.60%), which was higher than other age groups (p<0.05). Our results demonstrated that routine syphilis screening among inpatients proves to be one of the most effective precautionary measures to identify latent syphilis and thus to prevent transmission in urban areas in China.
authors.forename: Ai-Ying
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Wen-Jing
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Zang
authors.forename: Ling-Ling
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.forename: Yong-Li
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Chai
authors.affiliation: Radiology Department, Stanford School of Medicine. shuqi@stanford.edu.
authors.forename: ShuQi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007297:Inpatients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013592:Syphilis, Latent / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014210:Treponema pallidum; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D055815:Young Adult