[Immunoblotting for the serodiagnosis of syphilis. A candidate to replace the Nelson-Mayer test].

The lipid antigens used in the Bordet-Wassermann and prepared by Landsteiner and Marie for syphilis tests from 1909 to 1949 were non specific but have certain common features with the spirochete body. For more than forty years the Bordet-Wassermann reaction, associated with flocculation (Kahn) or agglutination (Kline-VDRL) was used to detect cases of tremonematosis despite frequent false positives reactions due to other infections. In 1949, the Nelson and Mayer test was introduced.