The profile of neurosyphilis in Denmark A clinical and serological study of all patients in Denmark with neurosyphilis disclosed in the years 1971-1979 incl. by Wassermann reaction (CWRM) in the cerebrospinal fluid.

55 cases of neurosyphilis, probably all that has been disclosed in Denmark in the nine year period 1971 to 1979 are submitted. 55 case histories and 10 tables illustrate the variegated clinical features and the differential diagnoses, the serological data, and CSF findings, the treatment and its results. As the symptomatology of the series fits well into the classification of neurosyphilis of the past our cases are classified accordingly in five clinical groups with seven subgroups. Penicillin treatment was applied to all the patients in current dosages and proved beneficial in most patients with regard to clinical symptoms and to laboratory parameters. The outcome here registered seem, however, to be related more to the character of the disease than to the types or amounts of penicillin. Eleven of the patients had a history of previous positive serology and two of them had been treated with penicillin for early syphilis but their neurosyphilis was evidently due to an untreated reinfection. Ten of the patients had aortitis.