Clinical Analysis of 22 cases with Syphilis Racenta in Department of Dermatology, Nippon Medical School.

Forty-nine patients with syphilis were seen from January 1996, to June 2000 at the Dermatological Clinic of Nippon Medical School Hospital. The frequency of syphilis among all outpatients was 0.17%, and the number of male syphilis patients was almost twice that of female syphilis patients. Many sexual contacts (especially with female prostitutes) were considered to be the source of the infection in a large proportion of the syphilis patients. Chancres were observed in 50% of the 6 patients with primary syphilis. Macular or papular syphilide and psoriasis syphilitica were the most frequently observed symptoms in the patients with secondary syphilis. The Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction was observed in 18.8%. The titer of IgM-TPHA responded well to the therapy, and decreased or even disappeared after treatment. The titer of TPHA did not change markedly upon treatment. A retrospective study of syphilis from 1980 revealed that the incidence of syphilis, especially early infectious syphilis, in patients at our clinic has decreased markedly since 1991.