Influence of mother VDRL titers on the outcome of newborns with congenital syphilis

Congenital syphilis still represents a significant public health problem worldwide, and particularly in developing countries. Despite years of research on different clinical and immunological features, many physiopathological aspects still lacks of knowledge, one of them the role of immune response against Treponema pallidum by infected mothers on the birth outcomes, e.g. birthweight. In this study we analyzed if the mother VDRL titers were significantly associated with the birthweight of newborns with congenital syphilis. We observed a highly significant association between both variables, finding at the linear regression that with higher mother VDRL titers, the newborn birthweight was lower (p=0.0345). We identified that higher VDRL titers are associated with lower birth weights, although the physiopathological reasons to explain this still remains unclear.