Modernizing Perinatal Syphilis Testing
The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston
Summary
The purpose of this study is to determine the testing performance of real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and transcription mediated amplification by comparing test performance of these novel molecular tests to current 2021 CDC CS guidelines for maternal/neonatal dyads at risk for syphilis infection and to determine whether CS is associated with adverse neurodevelopmental outcomes.
Eligibility
- Age range
- Up to 45 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: * Maternal diagnosis of syphilis by 2021 CDC STI guidelines, irrespective of treatment status; AND viable pregnancy with gestational age ≥ 12 weeks OR postpartum ≤ 96 hours from delivery OR Neonates of pregnancies affected by syphilis ≤ 72 hours of birth * Individuals (men and non-pregnant) with syphilis in Harris Health clinic with syphilis Exclusion Criteria: * Pregnant individuals and neonates who do not meet the criteria of syphilis (false positive) * Planning to move outside of study prior to ND testing
Interventions
- Diagnostic TestQuantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay for detection of Treponema pallidum
A quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay detects and quantifies DNA in a sample, and the qPCR assay used in this study targets the polA gene of T. pallidum to confirm presence of T. pallidum in a sample. Samples will be collected from the mother/newborn dyad at the time of birth. qPCR data will only be used to determine testing performance and will not be used in clinical management of study participants.