Very often, patients leave the office with square eyes, examining a bunch of forms for passing tests in their hands. A general blood test and urinalysis do not raise questions, but everyone else!
For example, blood for RPGA. What are these weird letters? Why do they take "extra" blood when everything is already clear?
It only seems to the patient that everything is clear, and the doctor, in order to make a diagnosis, needs this particular analysis.
What is this cunning analysis?
If you were given a direction with these strange letters on the “on RPGA” form, what will this mean? This study is not prescribed for routine diagnosis.
The analysis is very specific. It is done to determine the stage of syphilis. In the case when the generally accepted analysis for RW - the Wasserman reaction - turned out to be positive, or the doctor doubts that his indicator is reliable. The physician needs an RPHA to prescribe adequate therapy.
What is the essence of RPGA?
For those who want to learn more about RPGA - what it is, we give an answer. This is a specific treponemal test. Speaking in medical language, which is not quite clear to ordinary people, it’s a reaction of passive hemagglutination.
It was based on the fact that the agglutination of erythrocytes, on the surface of which a pathogen of syphilis, called pale treponema or spirochete, found shelter, occurs with the formation of treponemal antibodies.
Agglutination is a process in which a precipitate from any bacteria, viruses and other foreign inclusions precipitates from the composition of a blood sample taken under the influence of special reagents.
The more red blood cells settle with the treponema that has invaded them, the higher the stage of infection.
What is syphilis?
Even when faced with a disease such as syphilis, not everyone can understand how serious and fraught it is.
This is a sexually transmitted disease. You can get infected:
- through saliva;
- through the vaginal secretion;
- through sperm;
- household way in the presence of damage to the surface of the skin;
- syphilis can be transmitted to a child through the milk of a sick mother.
At the first stage of infection with the disease, chancres appear - dense formations or ulcers, then they disappear.
The secondary stage is characterized by a rash and swollen lymph nodes.
The third and fourth stages of this unpleasant disease can be expressed in damage to the brain, cardiovascular system, bone destruction and other pathological changes in the body.
If a pregnant woman has syphilis, then children are born with acute pathologies that affect almost all vital systems.
If the doctor ordered to donate blood for an RPHA, what is it, you can clarify for general development, but you can’t dismiss such a serious analysis! Syphilis requires compulsory treatment.
Those who have this disease pose a serious danger to others.
An express-diagnosis of the disease - the Wasserman reaction or RW - is surely done to everyone who gets a job or gets treatment in a hospital.
How to read the analysis results?
The analysis was handed over, and a form with incomprehensible numbers was issued into their hands. For example, RPGA - 1/320. What does this mean?
The numbers are written on the form in the event that a pale treponema is found in the body . If it is not, then the word "negative" will be written there. This means that the disease is absent, even if the Wasserman reaction was positive.
RPHA shows the disease no earlier than 4 weeks after the introduction of treponema into the body, that is, after the end of the incubation period.
The numbers of meaning are the captions.
initial stage | 1/320 |
Secondary syphilis | <1/320 |
Hidden | > 1/320 |
A positive RPHA test will be many years after syphilis has been cured.
It is interesting
The topic is specific, but syphilis is not a simple infection. Fear of becoming infected can poison life. Positive RPHA and RW are so unsettled that it makes some especially nervous patients think about suicide.
No need to panic right away! For example, a Wasserman reaction can show the presence of syphilis during pregnancy, with angina and some other diseases. It is to clarify whether there is a disease, and additional tests are taken, one of which is an RPHA - a blood test that accurately shows whether there is treponema in the body and what stage the disease has.
But this study may also be inaccurate in some inflammatory diseases of the internal organs. False positive RPHA - what does this mean, except for syphilis? For example, acute inflammation of the spleen.
Therefore, having received the primary results, one does not need to panic. It is likely that after repeated blood donation the result will be negative.
If several specific blood tests for syphilis show a positive result, only then infection is considered 100%.
Therefore, they conduct a comprehensive examination. It consists of:
- Wasserman reactions;
- RPGA;
- IFA - enzyme immunoassay;
- RIBT, which reveals syphilis in the absence of external symptoms in the later stages.
Unfortunately, syphilis is a disease that can be infected several times. Immunity after a disease does not appear.