• A 30 yr old woman with SLE is found to have a
positive serologic test for Syphilis (VDRL
test).she denies having had sexual contact
with her partner who had symptoms of a
venereal disease. The next best step would be
to
A Reassure her that the test is a false positive
reaction related to her autoimmune disorder
B Trace her sexual contact for serologic tests
C Treat her with Penicillin
D Perform a FTA-ABS test on a specimen of her
serum
Each of the following statements concerning
Treponema is correct EXCEPT
A T pallidum produces an exotoxin that
stimulates adenylate cyclase
B T pallidum cannot be grown on conventional
lab medium.
C Treponemes are members of the normal flora
of the human oropharynx.
D patients with T pallidum produce abs that
react with beef heart cardiolipin
• A 40 yr old with secondary syphilis is given a
single dose of benzathione penicillin and
experiences fever and chills.
• What is the most likely explanation for these
treatment induced symptoms?
A the wrong antibiotic was used to treat disease
B The patient had another underlying illness
C Cell wall endotoxin was released upon
treatment
D Penicillin stimulates secretion of bacterial
pyogenic exotoxins
• Explanation:
treatment induced fever after treatment for
systemic spirochete infections is called the
Jarisch- Herxheimer reaction and is related to
the release of bacterial cell wall endotoxin
fragments after antibiotic induced cell lysis