Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics has received FDA clearance for its ADVIA Centaur® Syphilis Assay for the detection of antibodies against Treponema pallidum, a bacterium known to cause the sexually transmitted disease, syphilis. Now, laboratories in the US can further automate testing for this serious condition and drive additional workflow and efficiency gains by combining it with other infectious disease testing on the Siemens ADVIA Centaur family of high-throughput, random-access immunoassay systems.
Syphilis has been called the “great imposter” because its symptoms can mimic other infections in advanced stages. When left untreated, syphilis can lead to serious neurological and cardiovascular complications, and cause stillbirth in pregnant women. Fortunately, detection of the presence of syphilis antibodies in patients may be used to support decisions for an antibiotic therapy, detect persons at risk to spread the infection and identify those that are not aware of their infection to prevent late complications. Recently, a meta-analysis of 10 studies involving 41,049 women found that screening and treatment of the infection in pregnant women could reduce the number of stillbirths and perinatal deaths resulting from maternal transmission of syphilis by more than half.
As part of the company’s ongoing educational initiatives, Siemens is offering “Syphilis Testing and the Reverse Algorithm Approach,” a complimentary webinar to review the clinical aspects of syphilis and laboratory testing’s role in diagnosing the disease. To register, click here.
Source: Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics
