Abstract
A 40-year-old woman presented via ambulance to our Emergency Department (ED) for decreased
level of consciousness. The patient's husband reported declining cognitive ability
over the prior 3 months, and a hospital visit for left leg weakness 5 months earlier.
In the ED, the patient exhibited recurrent opisthotonus episodes. Old records obtained
from another hospital were positive for reactive rapid plasma reagin test and florescent
treponemal antibody absorption test (FTA-ABS). The patient's husband confirmed exposure
to syphilis 15 years earlier. Subsequently, during hospitalization, the patient had
a positive cerebrospinal fluid venereal disease research laboratory test and FTA-ABS,
visible changes on a brain magnetic resonance imaging study, and was diagnosed with
neurosyphilis.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 12, 2008
Accepted:
May 22,
2007
Received in revised form:
March 2,
2007
Received:
May 6,
2005
Identification
Copyright
© 2011 Elsevier Inc. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
