[Diagnosis and therapy of newborn infants of mothers with so-called "positive Wassermann"].

With modern immunological methods of syphilis diagnosis--TPHA, FTA-ABS., cardiolipin complement-fixation reaction, separation of specific IgM-antibodies, paired sample analysis--it is possible to distinguish between antibodies, which are stimulated by prenatal treponemal infection and those transmitted through the placenta. Investigation of maternal blood during pregnancy facilitates an early diagnosis and therapy as well as it saves an unnecessary prophylaxis of the newborn. If the investigation of the maternal blood has not been possible, it has to be done in the newborn blood, optimally in the cordblood. Fourteen cases during the last five years illustrate the possibilities and limitations of serodiagnosis. In three cases a recent syphilis infection during pregnancy was diagnosed, only in one of these newborns there was detectable an infection of the fetus. With regard to the remaining eleven cases a connatal infection could be excluded by calculating also the halftime of the treponemal antibodies of IgG and IgM class.