ArticleClinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America2022
Detection of Treponema pallidum DNA During Early Syphilis Stages in Peripheral Blood, Oropharynx, Ano-Rectum and Urine as a Proxy for Transmissibility.
Article in Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 24 citations in OpenAlex.
- Clearance ofEClinicalMedicine · 2026Article
- Implementation and Innovation in Syphilis Diagnostics: Insights from Global Health Systems, Molecular Testing, and Self-Testing Strategies.Sexually transmitted diseases · 2026Article
- Mechanisms, management and prevention of anorectal sexually transmitted infections.Nature reviews. Gastroenterology & hepatology · 2026Review
- Epidemiological and pathogen characteristics of symptomatic male reproductive tract infections in Hunan province: retrospective study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Molecular Diagnosis of Syphilis in Brazilian Ambulatory Patients: Detection ofMicroorganisms · 2026Article
- Detection of Treponema pallidum tpp47 DNA in clinical samples of syphilis patients.European journal of medical research · 2025Article
- The Proportion ofOpen forum infectious diseases · 2025Article
- Update on syphilis diagnostics.Current opinion in infectious diseases · 2025Review
- Tracking Chlamydia and Syphilis in the Detroit Metro Area by Molecular Analysis of Environmental Samples.Environmental science & technology · 2024Article
- An Update on the Status of Direct Testing forJournal of the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Disease Canada = Journal officiel de l'Association pour la microbiologie medicale et l'infectiologie Canada · 2024Review
- Resurgence of syphilis: focusing on emerging clinical strategies and preclinical models.Journal of translational medicine · 2023Review
- Timely Diagnosis of Incubating Syphilis Infections Using Treponema pallidum Transcription-Mediated Amplification Assay.Clinical infectious diseases : an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America · 2023Article
- Treponema pallidum Detection at Asymptomatic Oral, Anal, and Vaginal Sites in Adults Reporting Sexual Contact with Persons with Syphilis.Emerging infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Incidence and Risk Factors for Early Syphilis Among Men Who Have Sex With Men in Australia, 2013-2019: A Retrospective Cohort Study.Open forum infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Treponema pallidum SubspeciesMicrobiology spectrum · 2022Article
- Aetiology of genital ulcer disease and associated factors among Mthatha public clinic attendees.Southern African journal of infectious diseases · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundSyphilis diagnosis may be challenging, especially in the asymptomatic and early clinical stages. We evaluated the presence of Treponema pallidum DNA (TP-DNA) in various sample types to elucidate transmissibility during various syphilis stages.
methodsThe study was conducted at the Amsterdam Centre for Sexual Health. We included adult men who have sex with men (MSM), who were suspected of having syphilis. The 2020 European guidelines definitions were followed for the diagnosis and staging of syphilis. Using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) targeting the polA gene of Treponema pallidum (TP-PCR), we tested the following study samples on TP-DNA: peripheral blood, oropharyngeal swab, ano-rectal swab, and urine.
resultsFrom November 2018 to December 2019 we included 293 MSM. Seventy clients had primary syphilis, 73 secondary syphilis, 86 early latent syphilis, 14 late latent syphilis, 23 treated syphilis, and 27 had no syphilis. TP-DNA was detected in at least 1 study sample in 35/70 clients with primary syphilis (2/70 peripheral blood, 7/70 oropharynx, 13/70 ano-rectum, and 24/70 urine); in 62/73 clients with secondary syphilis (15/73 peripheral blood, 47/73 oropharynx, 37/73 ano-rectum, and 26/73 urine); and in 29/86 clients with early latent syphilis (5/86 peripheral blood, 21/86 oropharynx, 11/86 ano-rectum, and 6/86 urine). TP-DNA was not detected in clients with late latent syphilis or treated syphilis, nor in clients without syphilis.
conclusionsTP-DNA was frequently detected in various sample types in the absence of lesions. This is in line with the high transmission rate of syphilis and opens diagnostic opportunities for early presymptomatic syphilis stages.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.