TY - JOUR AU - Guarner, Jeannette AU - Southwick, Karen AU - Greer, Patricia AU - Bartlett, Jeanine AU - Fears, Martha AU - Santander, Ana AU - Blanco, Stanley AU - Pope, Victoria AU - Levine, William AU - Zaki, Sherif T1 - Testing Umbilical Cords for Funisitis due to Treponema pallidum Infection, Bolivia T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2000 VL - 6 IS - 5 SP - 487 SN - 1080-6059 AB - To establish the frequency of necrotizing funisitis in congenital syphilis, we conducted a prospective descriptive study of maternal syphilis in Bolivia by testing 1,559 women at delivery with rapid plasma reagin (RPR). We examined umbilical cords of 66 infants whose mothers had positive RPR and fluorescent treponemal antibody absorption tests. Histologic abnormalities were detected in 28 (42%) umbilical cords (seven [11%] had necrotizing funisitis with spirochetes; three [4%] had marked funisitis without necrosis; and 18 [27%] had mild funisitis), and 38 [58%] were normal. Of 22 umbilical cords of infants from mothers without syphilis (controls), only two (9%) showed mild funisitis; the others were normal. Testing umbilical cords by using immunohistochemistry is a research tool that can establish the frequency of funisitis due to Treponema pallidum infection. KW - Bolivia DO - 10.3201/eid0605.000507 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/6/5/00-0507_article ER - End of Reference