Investigating the frequency of neuro-syphilis in stroke patients

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Manizheh Jozpanahi, Seyede Pegah Saeed, Abdol Amir Feizi, Maedeh Ghorbani

Abstract

Introduction: Syphilis is an infectious disease that can involve the central nervous system at any stage and cause neurosyphilis. Arterial stenosis or occlusion caused by syphilitic arthritis can lead to ischemic stroke. Stroke is one of the most important causes of death and disability worldwide, and identifying its underlying factors is important. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of neuro-syphilis in stroke patients.


Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on hospitalized patients with a clinical diagnosis of ischemic stroke. At first, the people referred to the hospital with history and diagnosis of stroke were tested serologically for syphilis. In confirmed stroke patients, VDRL serological test was first performed for screening. Due to the fact that no positive cases were found in terms of screening with VDRL, the next stages of the research, which included confirmation tests with FTA-ABS and Lumbar Puncture, were not performed.


Results: A total of 224 people were included in the study. The average age of the subjects was 69.9 ± 13.87. The screening test was reported negative in all subjects. According to gender, out of a total of 224 people, 100 people (44.6%) were women and 124 people (55.4%) were men. According to the place of residence, 85 people (37.9%) lived in the village and 139 people (62.1%) lived in the city. The frequency of marriage of the participants in the study was investigated and the results demonstrated that 222 (99.1%) were married and 2 (0.9%) were single. The frequency of disease outcome of the participants revealed that 185 (82.6%) of the patients recovered and 39 (17.4%) of the patients died, while none of the patients had syphilis. The prevalence of underlying disease showed that most of the patients, (139, 62%) had hypertension, followed by neurological disease (11, 4.9%).


Conclusion: Considering the negative results in all patients, it can be concluded that syphilis has been decreasing significantly in the city and Iran, and the cases of CNS vascular involvement in CVA patients are almost not related to syphilis. Syphilis as an underlying factor, currently does not play an important role in brain vascular events in this study.

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