Syphilis and pelvic inflammatory disease

Since screening every patient in the emergency department for venereal disease is impractical, we hypothesized that patients with the clinical diagnosis of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) might be at higher risk and a group that should be screened. Seventy women with a clinical diagnosis of PID treated in our adult emergency department from July to November 1976 were screened for syphilis using three separate serologic tests: Venereal Disease Research Laboratory, fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption, and treponema pallidum hemagglutination. The incidence of positive serologies in our study group was significantly higher (11.4%) than that of 100 controls (4%). All patients with a clinical diagnosis of PID should be screened for syphilis using both FTA-Abs and TPHA tests, as well as a VDRL.