Table 2.

Summary: Nontreponemal Antibodies for Various Stages of Syphilis

Stage of Syphilis	Nontreponemal Test	Sensitivity	Specificity	Quality of Studies
Primary	Serum RPR	62.5–76.1%a	N/A	High
	Serum VDRL	62.5–78.4%b	N/A	High
Secondary	Serum RPR	100%c	N/A	High
	Serum VDRL	100%	N/A	High
Early latent	Serum VDRL	85–100%	N/A	High
Late latent or unknown duration	Serum RPR	61%	N/A	High (1 study)
	Serum VDRL	64%	N/A	High (1 study)
Tertiary	Serum VDRL	47–64%	N/A	Lower (2 studies)
Neurosyphilis	CSF RPR	51.5–81.8%	81.8–100%	High
	CSF VDRL	49–87.5%	74–100%	High
Ocular	CSF VDRL	0–50%	N/A	Lower
Otic	CSF VDRL	5.5–5.6%	N/A	Lower (2 studies)

For full references, see the text of the paper and Table 1.

Abbreviations: CSF, cerebrospinal fluid; RPR, rapid plasma reagin; VDRL, venereal disease research laboratory.

^a1 high-quality paper reported a sensitivity of 92.7%.

^b1 high-quality paper reported a sensitivity of 50%.

^c1 high-quality paper reported a sensitivity of 97.2%.