Levels of IL-17 in CSF from patients with different clinical states of syphilis.

<p>Data are given as median (range), or frequencies,</p>a<p>v.s. syphilis patients without neurological involvement.</p>b<p>v.s. asymptomatic neurosyphilis patients.</p><p>IL-17 levels represent the median (range).</p

Clinical and laboratory features of the neurosyphilis patients enrolled in this study.

<p>Data are given as median (range), or frequencies.</p>a<p>“Duration of asymptomatic neurosyphilis” means the period between the patient's high risk behaviors which may be infected with <i>T. pallidum</i> and the confirmed neurosyphilis. “Duration of symptomatic neurosyphilis” means the duration of clinical manifestations;</p>b<p>includes 16 subjects with secondary syphilis, 2 subjects with early latent and 22 subjects with latent or unknown duration.</p

Increased CSF IL-17 levels in patients with neurosyphilis.

<p>(A) Detection rates of CSF IL-17(≥0.5 pg/ml) in control group (n = 29), syphilis patients without neurological disorders (including primary, secondary, latent and serofast syphilis; n = 69), or syphilis patients with neurological involvement (including asymptomatic and symptomatic neurosyphilis; n = 103). (B) Levels of CSF IL-17 proteins among the samples shown in (A). (C) Detection rates of CSF IL-17 in patients with asymptomatic (n = 40) or symptomatic (including meningovascular, paretic, tabetic and ocular; n = 63) neurosyphilis. (D) Levels of CSF IL-17 proteins among the CSF samples shown in (C). Results represent the median + individual values.</p

Clinical and laboratory characteristics of the control group and the syphilis patients.

<p>Data are given as median (range), or frequencies.</p>a<p>include 13 subjects with primary syphilis, 30 subjects with secondary syphilis, 7 subjects with serofast syphilis and 19 subjects with latent syphilis.</p>b<p>“Duration of primary, secondary syphilis and symptomatic neurosyphilis” means the duration of clinical manifestations; “Duration of latent syphilis” means the period between the patient's high risk behaviors which may be infected with <i>T. pallidum</i> and the confirmed both serum TPPA/RPR positive. “Duration of asymptomatic neurosyphilis” means the period between the patient's high risk behaviors which may be infected with <i>T. pallidum</i> and the confirmed neurosyphilis. “Duration of the serofast” means the period between syphilitic patients who receiving recommended standard treatment, whose nontreponemal test titers remain positive and then was diagnosed as serofast.</p><p><b>Abbreviations:</b> RPR, rapid plasma regain; VDRL, venereal disease research laboratory; TPPA, treponema pallidum particle agglutination assay; WBC, white blood cells; ND, not done.</p><p><b>Healthy donors</b>: peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) isolation from healthy donors and for measurement of the baseline of the levels of IL-17⁺ cells and the frequency of Th17 cells. <b>Control:</b> patients who undergone orthopaedic or stone surgery and had not experienced syphilis, where CSF was collected prior to spinal anaesthesia. Samples from this group were used for measuring the baseline of the levels of IL-17 in CSF.</p

Factors that influence normalization of each laboratory measure in the final Cox regression models.

<p>HR, hazard ratio; NS, in the stepwise model and therefore not included in the final model;</p>a<p>Early (secondary and early latent) stage versus late latent stage and unknown duration;</p>b<p>aqueous crystalline pencillin G,4MU intravenous every 4 h for 14 days versus ceftriaxone, 2 g intravenous daily for 10 days;</p>c<p>Greater than the median value versus less than or equal to the median value in subjects with each abnormality. Median values were as follows: CSF WBC count, 8.8 cells/ml; CSF protein concentration, 68 mg/dl; CSF-VDRL titer, 1∶4; serum RPR test titer, 1∶64.</p>d<p>CSF IL-17 positive (≥0.5 pg/ml) versus CSF IL-17 negative (<0.5 pg/ml).</p

Comparison of clinical features between patients with CSF IL-17⁺ and IL-17⁻ neurosyphilis.

<p>Data are given as median (range), or frequencies.</p><p>*significant differences between the two groups,*p<0.01.</p><p>**significant differences between the two groups, **p<0.001.</p>a<p>“Duration of asymptomatic neurosyphilis” means the period between the patient's high risk behaviors which may be infected with <i>T. pallidum</i> and the confirmed neurosyphilis. “Duration of symptomatic neurosyphilis” means the duration of clinical manifestations.</p

Summary of neurosyphilis cases with high-dose benzylpenicillin-induced neutropenia.

<p>Summary of neurosyphilis cases with high-dose benzylpenicillin-induced neutropenia.</p

Flowchart of neurosyphilis patients included in the dataset.

<p>Abbreviation: CBC, complete blood count; WBC, white blood cell; ANC, absolute neutrophil count. ^a One patient did not receive a repeat CBC due to some personal reasons. ^b See detailed criteria in the text. ^c 1×10⁹/L≤ANC<1.5×10⁹/L ^d 0.5×10⁹/L ≤ANC<1×10⁹/L ^e ANC<0.5×10⁹/L</p

Characteristics of neurosyphilis patients with and without neutropenia treated with initial therapy of high-dose intravenous benzylpenicillin (n = 578).

<p>Characteristics of neurosyphilis patients with and without neutropenia treated with initial therapy of high-dose intravenous benzylpenicillin (n = 578).</p