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Syphilis antibody TP

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection of public health importance and has made a re-emergence worldwide since early 2000 and more recently in 2020.

Caused by the bacteria Treponema pallidum, Syphilis transmission is primarily person to person via direct contact with infectious lesions or through transplacental spread during pregnancy leading to congenital infection.

The HPSC reported 611 notifications of early infectious syphilis in Ireland in 2020. As asymptomatic infection is common, screening and treatment in at risk groups is important to reduce onward transmission.

Clinical Details

There are several stages of syphilis infection: early infection which is divided into primary infection, secondary infection, and early latent infection and late syphilis which includes latent, cardiovascular and gummatous syphilis. The average incubation period is 21 days but can range from 10-90 days.

Primary syphilis: The classic lesion of primary syphilis is a single, painless and indurated ulcer with a clean base. This is called a chancre. However, there is significant variability in morphological presentation and can therefore be unreliable.

Secondary syphilis: There may not be a sharp demarcation between primary and secondary stage syphilis. The chancre may also still be present. Secondary syphilis is often a subtle disease as skin lesions may be easily overlooked or mistaken for other dermatologic diseases.

Latent (early & late) syphilis: The latent or asymptomatic stage of syphilis is defined as the disappearance of the secondary manifestations until therapeutic cure or tertiary manifestations develop. This stage is arbitrarily divided into early and late latent syphilis based on the spontaneous infectious relapse of untreated patients. Approximately 90% of relapses occur within 1 year, these cases are known as early latent syphilis. 94% of relapses occur within 2 years and the rest occur over 4 years. Relapses occurring after 1 year are defined as late latent syphilis.

Tertiary syphilis: This stage presents at the end stage of infection, 10-30 years after initial infection. Tertiary syphilis has many different clinical presentations. i) Cardiovascular syphilis, ii) Neurosyphilis and iii) Late benign disease. Tertiary syphilis can occur 10-30 years after initial infection.

The diagnosis of Syphilis depends on clinical findings, examination of lesion materials and/or serologic tests for syphilis.

Case Study
At Enfer Medical, we have integrated a cutting-edge and fully automated WASPLab® (Walk Away Specimen Processor) that has significantly enhanced our testing capabilities to ensure the highest of quality when processing patient samples.
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WASPLab® at Enfer Medical
Our entire microbiology workflow has been optimized using automation and highly sophisticated robots to ensure uninterrupted incubation for rapid bacterial growth and improved turnaround times for patients.
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Our Services

Service
Health & Wellness
General health and wellness testing can include a variety of tests, depending on the needs of the individual or recommendations of
Find Out More
Service
Sexual Health
Regular STI screening facilitates early treatment and reduces the long-term consequences of infection.
Find Out More
Service
Respiratory Health
Rapid early pathogen identification has important treatment and infection control implications. See our range of tests here.
Find Out More
Service
Reproductive & Female Health
Hormonal analysis is hugely beneficial to identifying problems that can arise during the reproductive years.
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Service
All Services
View the full suite of services at Enfer Medical here.......
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Sample Type &
Volume Required

5mL venous serum or plasma OR 0.8mL capillary serum.

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Transporting
Samples

In addition to the packaging of samples, the transport/delivery of clinical samples to the laboratory is required to be in adherence to all national regulations for the safe transport of biological materials. Enfer Medical provides a fully compliant logistics service, aligned with clients’ testing requirements.

Prompt transport of specimens:
To ensure prompt testing of samples and release of results within the published test turnaround times, samples should arrive to the laboratory by 18:00. Test turnaround time is measured from receipt of the sample at the laboratory until the time the authorised results are reported to users.

Acceptance/Rejection
of Samples

In rare cases specimens may not be suitable for testing on arrival to the laboratory. In that case the sample will be rejected at the receipt stage and the service user will be notified immediately and an explanation as to why the sample could not be processed will be provided. Reasons why samples cannot be processed include but are not limited to:

  • Samples received beyond the stability limits and/or not at the correct temperature indicated for each test.
  • Incorrect sample type received.
  • Leaking samples, sample not received or sample insufficient for analysis as stated below within sample requirements.
  • Non-compliant samples or request forms i.e. those missing sample date information, missing sample test request and/or missing sample site/type information.
  • Samples received without the necessary patient identifiers.
Clients will be provided with guidance on Sample Receipt Anomalies.

Our Services

Service
Health & Wellness
General health and wellness testing can include a variety of tests, depending on the needs of the individual or recommendations of
Find Out More
Service
Sexual Health
Regular STI screening facilitates early treatment and reduces the long-term consequences of infection.
Find Out More
Service
Respiratory Health
Rapid early pathogen identification has important treatment and infection control implications. See our range of tests here.
Find Out More
Service
Reproductive & Female Health
Hormonal analysis is hugely beneficial to identifying problems that can arise during the reproductive years.
Find Out More
Service
All Services
View the full suite of services at Enfer Medical here.......
Find Out More
Result Values:
Qualitative results for Syphilis TP will be reported as:
Qualitative results
  • DETECTED
  • NOT DETECTED
  • INVALID
Please note that Syphilis is a notifiable disease under the Infectious Diseases (Amendment) Regulations 2020 (S.I. No. 53 of 2020) February 2020.

Please refer to the Health Protection Surveillance Centre for the Case Definitions for Notifiable Diseases:

HPSC Link
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Our Services

Service
Health & Wellness
General health and wellness testing can include a variety of tests, depending on the needs of the individual or recommendations of
Find Out More
Service
Sexual Health
Regular STI screening facilitates early treatment and reduces the long-term consequences of infection.
Find Out More
Service
Respiratory Health
Rapid early pathogen identification has important treatment and infection control implications. See our range of tests here.
Find Out More
Service
Reproductive & Female Health
Hormonal analysis is hugely beneficial to identifying problems that can arise during the reproductive years.
Find Out More
Service
All Services
View the full suite of services at Enfer Medical here.......
Find Out More