Serology with Lipid Antigen

Evaluation of Price'S Precipitation Reaction in the Sero-Diagnosis of Syphilis

“…Kahn (1950) stated that lowering the sensitivity levels of serological tests may prove to be a step in the right direction. While we have in cardiolipin antigen a more standardized antigen, there is a greater liability to non-treponemal reactions.…”

Value of the Kahn Test in Africans

“…especially under adverse climatic conditions (Evans, 1954). Kahn (1954) considered that he could distinguish a typical serological pattern in yaws, but subsequently found that this only occurred in sera which had travelled long distances (i.e., from Jamaica), and was not present in fresh sera from yaws patients.…”

“…Schmidt (1954), reporting on BFP reactions among blood donors, found the greatest number of them among the lower degrees of potency. Kahn (1954) states that BFP reactions are usually weak and of low titre. Stokes and James (1949), however, reviewing their experience with 43 BFP reactions from private practice, found quite a high proportion had high titres with STS.…”

“…Price (1949) found that on serial testing, the reaction remained positive for a relatively short time, and gradually subsided to negativity without treatment. Kahn (1954) states that BFP reactions may continue for a few weeks to several months. It is probable that, as suggested by Thomas and others (1950), falling titres which become negative in untreated patients who deny the possibility of syphilis are rarely, if ever, due to syphilis.…”

“…In short, an STS result that becomes negative in a short time without treatment is almost certainly a BFP reaction, but no conclusion can safely be drawn that, because the tests remain positive for months or years, the patient therefore has syphilis. BFP Reactors.- Kahn (1950aKahn ( , 1953Kahn ( , 1954 has described his universal serological reaction. By this test, which is a series of quantitative set-ups with different concentrations of saline solution and read after different periods of incubation in the refrigerator, he describes a serological pattern for health and in certain diseases.…”