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False positive FTA-ABS results in patients with genital herpes.

1975; BMJ; Volume: 51; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1136/sti.51.5.329

1472-3263

Janis Wright, A W Cremer, G L Ridgway,

Genital Health and Disease

The absorbed fluorescent treponemal antibody test (FTA-ABS) is a sensitive and specific test for syphilis and other treponemal diseases.Sera are first treated with a 'sorbent' consisting of a heated and con- centrated filtrate in which Reiter treponemes have been grown; this neutralizes the effect of group anti- treponemal antibody present in many normal sera (Deacon, Lucas, and Price, 1966).False positive reactions to the FTA-ABS are rare, but have been found in sera containing abnormal macroglobulins or antinuclear factors (Mackey, Price, Knox, and Scotti, 1969; Jokinen, Lassus, and Linder, 1969).A beaded staining of treponemes may be given by sera from some patients with systemic lupus ery- thematosus (Kraus, Haserick, Logan, and Bullard, 1971).No consistently false positive reactions to the FTA-ABS have been described for other diseases.However, Kirily, Jobbagy, and Kovats (1967) reported a few patients with genital lesions not due to syphilis whose sera were reactive with the FTA- ABS test.This paper reports the results found in a group of patients with genital herpes whose sera were examined with the FTA-ABS test. Material and methods Clinical methodsThe patients were seen between November, 1973, and March, 1974.A clinical diagnosis of genital herpes was made from the appearance of characteristic vesicles followed by shallow painful ulcers on the penis or vulva.Specimens of material from the lesions for culture of herpes simplex virus (HSV) were collected with cotton wool swabs, which were broken into virus transport medium and immediately sent to the laboratory.Blood for serological studies was taken at the patient's first attend- ance and, in many instances, at subsequent attendances also.Other sexually-transmitted diseases, if present, were diagnosed and treated by conventional methods. Microbiological methodsTissue culture for HSV was performed in human embry- onic fibroblast or Hep2 cell lines.Serological tests for syphilis were performed on all sera as follows: