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Purpose

Treponema pallidum is a bacterium that causes the disease syphilis. The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the testing performance of two diagnostic molecular techniques [quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) and transcription-mediated amplification (TMA)] for the detection of Treponema pallidum in maternal and neonatal specimens from participants with the diagnosis of syphilis using the Centers for Disease Control's (CDC's) Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) Treatment Guidelines for adult and congenital syphilis.

Condition

Eligibility

Eligible Ages
Under 45 Years
Eligible Genders
All
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
No

Inclusion Criteria

  • Maternal diagnosis of syphilis by 2021 CDC STI guidelines, irrespective of treatment status; AND viable pregnancy with gestational age ≥ 12 weeks OR postpartum ≤ 96 hours from delivery - Neonates of pregnancies affected by syphilis ≤ 72 hours of birth

Exclusion Criteria

  • Pregnant individuals and neonates who do not meet the criteria of syphilis (false positive) - Planning to move outside of study prior to ND testing

Study Design

Phase
N/A
Study Type
Interventional
Allocation
N/A
Intervention Model
Single Group Assignment
Primary Purpose
Diagnostic
Masking
None (Open Label)

Arm Groups

ArmDescriptionAssigned Intervention
Experimental
Molecular testing for detection of T. pallidum and use of CDC guidelines for diagnosis of syphilis
  • Diagnostic Test: Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay for detection of Treponema pallidum
    A quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay detects and quantifies DNA in a sample, and the qPCR assay used in this study targets the polA gene of T. pallidum to confirm presence of T. pallidum in a sample. Samples will be collected from the mother/newborn dyad at the time of birth. qPCR data will only be used to determine testing performance and will not be used in clinical management of study participants.
  • Diagnostic Test: Aptima Treponema pallidum transcription-mediated amplification (TMA) assay for detection of Treponema pallidum
    The Aptima transcription-mediated amplification (TMA) assay used in this study will target RNA of T. pallidum to confirm presence of T. pallidum in a sample. Samples will be collected from the mother/newborn dyad at the time of birth. TMA data will only be used to determine testing performance and will not be used in clinical management of study participants.
  • Other: Center for Disease Control (CDC) Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) 2021 Treatment Guidelines for diagnosis of syphilis
    Using the Center for Disease Control (CDC) Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) 2021 Treatment Guidelines, new born syphilis infection is categorized by clinical providers at birth as follows: confirmed proven/highly probably, possible congenital syphilis (CS), CS less likely, or CS unlikely. These CS categories are determined using neonatal nontreponemal test results, physical exam of the infant, placental pathology, and maternal serologies and treatment history, and comparison of maternal and neonatal nontreponemal tiers. These data will be collected as part of standard clinical care.

Recruiting Locations

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
Houston, Texas 77030
Contact:
Norma Perez, DO
832-325-6516
norma.perez@uth.tmc.edu

More Details

Status
Recruiting
Sponsor
The University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston

Study Contact

Irene Stafford, MD
(713) 500-6412
Irene.Stafford@uth.tmc.edu

Notice

Study information shown on this site is derived from ClinicalTrials.gov (a public registry operated by the National Institutes of Health). The listing of studies provided is not certain to be all studies for which you might be eligible. Furthermore, study eligibility requirements can be difficult to understand and may change over time, so it is wise to speak with your medical care provider and individual research study teams when making decisions related to participation.