[Detection of peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets in treated syphilis patients with persistent positivity for rapid plasma reagin].

Objective: To observe the changes in peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets in patients with latent syphilis after treatment, who had persistent positive results of test for rapid plasma reagin (RPR) and remained infectious.

Methods: T-lymphocyte subsets and natural killer (NK) cells in peripheral blood were measured with flow cytometry (FCM) in these 43 patients and 30 normal subjects served as controls.

Results: Peripheral blood CD3, CD4 and NK cells exhibited no significant difference between the latent patients and the controls (P>0.