Case report of neurosyphilis with intrathecal synthesis of oligoclonal antibodies

A clinical case is described which occurred in the practice of the Department of Neurology 1 of the Mechnikov Dnipropetrovsk Regional Clinical Hospital. Using the patient’s case history as an example, some possible difficulties in a differential diagnosis of neurosyphilis and demyelinating diseases are shown, peculiarities of laboratory diagnosis of the former are highlighted and reviewed, and also the diagnostic importance of identification of antibody synthesis type during a cerebrospinal fluid analysis for detecting oligoclonal bands is explained. The article contains a brief overview of the works related to modern views on the place and role of the cerebrospinal fluid analysis for a diagnosis and a differential diagnosis of diseases of the nervous system, for studying the types of antibody synthesis in the blood serum and in the cerebrospinal fluid, as well as to some aspects of diagnosing syphilis.