SynthesisBulletin of the World Health Organization2013
Untreated maternal syphilis and adverse outcomes of pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 276 papers, 14 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
276 citing papers in PubMed, 14 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Factors influencing implementation of point-of-care tests for maternal and newborn screening and diagnosis in low-resource settings: a systematic review.BMC global and public health · 2026Pooled it
- Effectiveness of treating gestational syphilis in the last trimester on the incidence of congenital syphilis: a systematic review and meta-analysisRevista colombiana de obstetricia y ginecologia · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence of sexually transmitted infections, and its associated factors among students in Ethiopia: a systematic review and meta-analysis study.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- The cost-effectiveness of syphilis screening in pregnant women: a systematic literature review.Frontiers in public health · 2024Pooled it
- Improved rapid diagnostic tests to detect syphilis and yaws: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Sexually transmitted infections · 2022Pooled it
- Barriers and facilitators to HIV and syphilis rapid diagnostic testing in antenatal care settings in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review.BMJ global health · 2022Pooled it
- Pooled it
- The impact of antenatal syphilis point of care testing on pregnancy outcomes: A systematic review.PloS one · 2021Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Clinical Test Performance of a Rapid Point-of-Care Syphilis Treponemal Antibody Test: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2020Pooled it
- Syphilis management in pregnancy: a review of guideline recommendations from countries around the world.Sexual and reproductive health matters · 2019Pooled it
- Antibiotic treatment for newborns with congenital syphilis.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2019Pooled it
- Prevalence of Syphilis among Pregnant Women in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.BioMed research international · 2019Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Low male partner attendance after syphilis screening in pregnant women leads to worse birth outcomes: the Syphilis Treatment of Partners (STOP) randomised control trial.Sexual health · 2020Trial
- Male Partner Linkage to Clinic-Based Services for Sexually Transmitted Infections and Human Immunodeficiency Virus Services Following Couple Home-Based Education and Testing.Sexually transmitted diseases · 2019Trial
- A multifaceted intervention to improve syphilis screening and treatment in pregnant women in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo and in Lusaka, Zambia: a cluster randomised controlled trial.The Lancet. Global health · 2019Trial
- Perspectives on male partner notification and treatment for syphilis among antenatal women and their partners in Kampala and Wakiso districts, Uganda.BMC infectious diseases · 2019Trial
- Elimination of congenital syphilis: a nationwide register-based study, Denmark, 2010 to 2024.Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin · 2026Article
- New biomarkers for the detection of fetal death derived from large-scale proteomic analysis of maternal plasma.American journal of obstetrics and gynecology · 2026Article
216 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo perform a systematic review and meta-analysis of reported estimates of adverse pregnancy outcomes among untreated women with syphilis and women without syphilis.
methodsPubMed, EMBASE and Cochrane Libraries were searched for literature assessing adverse pregnancy outcomes among untreated women with seroreactivity for Treponema pallidum infection and non-seroreactive women. Adverse pregnancy outcomes were fetal loss or stillbirth, neonatal death, prematurity or low birth weight, clinical evidence of syphilis and infant death. Random-effects meta-analyses were used to calculate pooled estimates of adverse pregnancy outcomes and, where appropriate, heterogeneity was explored in group-specific analyses.
findingsOf the 3258 citations identified, only six, all case-control studies, were included in the analysis. Pooled estimates showed that among untreated pregnant women with syphilis, fetal loss and stillbirth were 21% more frequent, neonatal deaths were 9.3% more frequent and prematurity or low birth weight were 5.8% more frequent than among women without syphilis. Of the infants of mothers with untreated syphilis, 15% had clinical evidence of congenital syphilis. The single study that estimated infant death showed a 10% higher frequency among infants of mothers with syphilis. Substantial heterogeneity was found across studies in the estimates of all adverse outcomes for both women with syphilis (66.5% [95% confidence interval, CI: 58.0-74.1]; I(2) = 91.8%; P < 0.001) and women without syphilis (14.3% [95% CI: 11.8-17.2]; I(2) = 95.9%; P < 0.001).
conclusionUntreated maternal syphilis is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. These findings can inform policy decisions on resource allocation for the detection of syphilis and its timely treatment in pregnant women.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.