[Prenatal toxoplasmosis: diagnosis and prevention]. / Die pränatale Toxoplasmose. Diagnose und Prävention.

Sera of six children, clinically suspected of having congenital toxoplasmosis, and of their mothers were examined for specific antibodies. In four, prenatal infection was established shortly after birth by significant titre differences between the neonatal and maternal sera. In three neonates, toxoplasma-specific IgM antibodies were demonstrated. In two children, aged seven and 16 months, postnatal infection could not be absolutely excluded, although both they and their mothers had high toxoplasma antibody titres.

[Prevention and diagnosis of congenital syphilis from an immunological viewpoint]. / Prophylaxe und Diagnostik der Syphilis connata aus immunologischer Sicht.

Frequency of syphilitic infection among 5772 pregnant women in the Düsseldorf area was 0.4%. Of 91 mothers with a positive Treponema pallidum haemagglutination (TPHA) test, 23 required treatment. Congenital syphilis was found only in those children whose mothers were not known to have syphilis at the time of birth. Diagnosis of Treponema infection in the newborn can be made with certainty only if there is a positive IgM-antibody test. In the absence of Treponema pallidum-specific serum IgM-antibodies in the newborn or if a positive IgM-test is not plausible, the suspected diagnosis can be confirmed or excluded only by serial post-partum tests of antibody kinetics. In TPHA the test reacting IgG-antibodies are eliminated in non-infected infants with a half-life of 20.5 days. Prolonged elimination half-life or persistence of positive TPHA titres confirms intra-uterine or perinatal syphilitic infection.