COMPARISON OF THE FLUORESCENT TREPONEMAL ANTIBODY TEST WITH OTHER TESTS FOR SYPHILIS ON CEREBROSPINAL FLUIDS*t BY

Tests for syphilis on cerebrospinal fluids were evaluated in the Washington, D.C., Serology Con-ference of 1941 (J. vener. Dis. Inform., 1942), but spinal fluids were omitted from the later Serology Evaluation and Research Assembly Study in 1956-57 (S.E.R.A., 1959). Since this earlier evaluation, several treponemal antigen tests have been described. The Treponema pallidum immobilization (TPI), fluorescent treponemal antibody (FTA), and Kolmer complement-fixation tests using Reiter protein antigen (KRP) are three tests designed to detect antibodies differing from those that caused reactivity in the non-treponemal antigen tests. The FTA test has been used for testing sera, but has not properly been evaluated as a spinal fluid test. This study wa