Syphilis

Testing site      

Alaska State Public Health Laboratory – Anchorage 

Anchorage Lab Request Form 

Diseases 

Syphilis

•  primary
• secondary
• latent
• tertiary

Organisms 

Treponema pallidum

Test Method 

• Traditional algorithm (non-treponemal screen followed by treponemal
  confirmation)
• Rapid Plasma Reagin (charcoal agglutination)
• FTA-ABS (indirect fluorescent antibody method)

Availability

Routine testing   

Specimen type 

Serum (2-5 mL)

Specimen collection instructions

Collect the blood aseptically by venipuncture in SST and centrifuge from red
blood cells within 2 hours.

Storage and transport  

• Serum may be stored at 2-8°C for up to 7 days or frozen at -20°C or lower for up
  to 14 days.
• A maximum of 2 freeze thaws cycles is acceptable.
• Ship with cool packs.
• Package, label, and ship as Biological Substance, Category B.

Ship to Alaska State Public Health Laboratory: Anchorage, ATTN: Clinical Microbiology 

Results  

• RPR Reactive (with dilutions)
• Non-reactive

A normal result is non-reactive.

Note: FTA-ABS is automatically performed on all reactive RPRs unless FTA-ABS
has been previously positive at ASPHL.

Turnaround time  

1-2 days

Resources