Syphilis as an interdisciplinary problem: from polymorphic clinical manifestations of visceral lesions to main causes and consequences of disease progression

Abstract

Syphilis is a significant infection that can affect not only the mucous membranes and skin, but also internal organs. Visceral changes in patients with syphilis often cause nonspecific clinical manifestations and develop without any skin symptoms, which makes this disease an interdisciplinary problem. Untimely therapy, insufficient control of cure, late diagnosis of syphilitic lesions of internal organs may result in irreversible dystrophic changes and even permanent disability. Given that these patients might seek medical assistance in any healthcare institutions, it is important that not only dermatovenerologists, but also related specialists should be well aware of syphilis. In this article, we report cases of syphilitic lesions to the nervous and cardiovascular systems. Case series focus the attention of specialists on the negative consequences of improper clinical and serological control and late treatment of syphilis, which resulted in disease progression and organic lesions. Some of the patients with syphilisrelated visceral pathology described in this article had late diagnosis of syphilis primarily due to a narrow approach to symptom evaluation. Our study aims to raise doctors' awareness about current characteristics of syphilis and possible diagnostic errors. Key words: cardiovascular syphilis, neurosyphilis, ocular syphilis, diagnostic errors