A newborn premature baby presented with bullous lesions on skin and legs, Xray shows features suggestive of periostitis. Which of the following is the initial investigation?
The newborn baby has characteristic signs and symptoms of congenital syphilis. Periostitis is a hallmark of skeletal manifestation. VDRL/RPR is the initial investigation of choice in congenital syphilis. All neonates born to mothers who have reactive nontreponemal and treponemal test results should be evaluated with a quantitative nontreponemal serologic test (RPR or VDRL) performed on the neonate's serum, because umbilical cord blood can become contaminated with maternal blood and yield a false-positive result. FTA-ABS/TPHA are used for confirmation of syphilis in a patient with reactive RPR/VDRL test. T. pallidum cannot be detected by culture. Reference: Ananthanarayan and Paniker&;s Textbook of Microbiology Tenth edition
VDRL test
FTA-ABS test
TPHA test
culture
Bacteriology