neurosyphilis

According to a recent report, a man who struggled to walk and talk for months was diagnosed with neurosyphilis - a syphilis infection affecting the brain.

None had neurosyphilis. All achieved good outcomes on standard guideline-directed therapy.

Neurosyphilis, the involvement of central nervous system by syphilis infection, can affect 40% of the untreated patients (1).

CSF analysis in TBM shows elevated proteins and low glucose with lymphocytic pleocytosis but patients with Herpes encephalitis, cryptococcal meningitis, brucellosis and neurosyphilis also exhibit more or less same picture so there arise difficulty in differentiating TBM from these causes of meningitis.

At this institution, Nietzsche received the diagnosis of "progressive general paralysis"--PGP (neurosyphilis), later confirmed in the psychiatric clinic of the University of Iena, directed by Dr.

In instances of tertiary syphilis with cardiac involvement and gummas, the patient should have a CSF examination and if abnormal be treated with the same regimen as a person with neurosyphilis. The recommended regimen in these cases is Aqueous crystalline penicillin G1824 million units per day, administered as 3-4 million units IV every four hours or continuous infusion, for 10-14 days--Matthew Prior, MPH, State Policy and Communications Manager, National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD)

Furthermore, 6% had neurosyphilis, 5% had acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) associated dementia and peripheral neuropathy occurred in 17% of the patients.

Of the 8 patients diagnosed with psychotic disorder owing to a GMC, human immunodeficiency deficiency virus (HIV) was the most frequent cause, documented in 6 individuals (14.29%); epilepsy and neurosyphilis were noted as the cause in one (2.38%) patient each.

Neurosyphilis can occur anytime during the course of syphilis, it was rampant in the preantibiotic era whereas in the modern world it is considered a disease of the past and is rarely seen.

Complications of diseases--encephalitis, neurosyphilis, Wilson's disease etc.

We defined neurosyphilis as positive results in nontreponemal and treponemal serologic tests, combined with neurologic and CSF abnormalities, such as high leukocyte or protein concentrations (>0.5 g/L), and 1 CSF abnormality, such as positive VDRL or fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption test results (24-26) or a positive PCR test result for T.

In up to 40% of cases concomitant neurosyphilis may be present [3].