Practiced in medicine for more than a century, Wasserman's diagnostic response is one of the widely known studies. Developed by the German physician August von Wasserman to facilitate the diagnosis of the initial and inactive forms of syphilis, this immunological reaction immediately entered the range of therapeutic activities and proved to be of use.
What caused such an unambiguously positive evaluation of the use of the patient's blood sample for diagnosis of syphilis ?
- The possibility appeared for doctors to confirm the diagnosis of syphilis by means of a simple blood test for RW (Wasserman reaction).
- The results of the treatment and its effectiveness can be controlled using a specific indicator.
- According to Wasserman's positive reaction, it was possible to establish not only the very fact of infection, but also roughly - the time of the moment of infection.
Blood test for Wasserman reaction
Over time, many shortcomings of the popular blood test were revealed. If Wasserman's negative reaction was usually sufficiently reliable, then a positive result could often be caused by other causes. At the same time, the number of possible grounds for an erroneous positive result has steadily increased with time.
A positive reaction was noted in some diseases (malaria, tuberculosis, systemic lupus erythematosus , leptospirosis, leprosy, blood diseases). And even after a vaccination or an acute viral infection.
In the USSR, from the second half of the fifties of the last century, the classical Wasserman reaction was always duplicated by the addition of two more obligatory studies - the reaction of Kahn and the cytocholic reaction.
At present, Wasserman's classical reaction is not used. But, according to the established habit, doctors often call so any reaction of a diagnostic blood test for syphilis.