The Course of the Serologic Tests during Therapeutic Malaria in Patients with Syphilis

Abstract

IN connection with investigations onthe role of malaria in the treatment of syphilis, changes were noted in the quantitative serologic tests during the course of the induced infections. These findings form the basis for this report.We know of no previous systematic study of the effect of malarial infection upon the quantitative determination of reagin in the serum of patients with syphilis. On the other hand, the development of a false positive serologic test for syphilis during the course of malaria in non-luetics seems to be well established by the recent investigations of Kitchen, Webb, and Kupper,1 and of Burney, Mays, and Iskrant.2 The earlier literature on this subject has been reviewed by Hazen and his collaborators.3 METHODS AND MATERIALAll individuals included in this report were studied at Sing Sing Prison Hospital with the exception of 10 patients who were observed in collabora-

False-positive rapid plasma reagin testing in patients with acute Plasmodium vivax malaria: A case control study

“…The reason for this is not clear, although men outnumbered women in the malaria arm of the study. It is interesting to note that the earlier studies of treponemal tests in patients undergoing malariotherapy during the 1940s [9,23] were conducted in state hospitals and prisons where male patients may have predominated. False-positive non-treponemal tests are more common in women than in men [18,24], however, and our finding here may be coincidental.…”