Since the use of penicillin for the treatment of syphilis, the prevalence of syphilis was decreased. But now-a-days, the awakening of syphilis is reported in the foreign countries, and in this country, there is a tendency to increase in syphilitic patients. It may be thought because the use of penicillin is lessened due to side action such as penicillin shock, immoral sexual habits, and development of penicillin resistance to T. pallidum.
´It is well known that the serological tests are important for the diagnosis of syphilis.
In the previous report, it was noted that seroreactive percentage in the leprosy patients is higher than the other examination groups.
The purpose of this report is to support the previous data in leprosy patients and to compare the results of the VDRL, Kolmer, and RPCF tests.
Two hundred and ninty "one sera of leprosy patients were examined by the VDRL, Kolmer, and RPCF tests. The sera were collected at random from the out-patients at the Special Skin Clinic in Seoul. All patients were under medical supervision and treatment when their :sera were taken.
In 291 sera, 135 were from iepromatous leprosy, 105 from tuberculoid leprosy, and 51 from other groups (Dimorphous and Indeterminated). The results are obtained as followings
1. Of the 291 sera, the VDRL test was reactive in 9.3%, the Kolmer test in 20.2and the RPCF test in. 6.9 % . It is believed that reactive- sera to RPCF test (6.9 % ) are syphilitic because that the specificity and sensitivity of this test are very high. It was conformed by various investigators.
This data are similar to .those of other investigators in Korea. But comparing to the reports in foreign countries, it is low. It might be thought that there are no other spirochetal diseases (Pinta, Yaw, etc.) except syphilis in Korea but in foreign countries.
2. It was found that the reactivity in iepromatous type was higher than other types in nontreponemal tests (VDRL, Kolmer): It may be due to the biological false positivity of those tests.
3. Of the. reactive sera to the RPCF test, some were not agreement with the VDRL and Kolmer tests.
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