Objective: Despite the fact that syphilis reporting is mandatory in our country, it is difficult to predict the actual frequency of the disease due to the problems in the notification system. RPR or rapid test positive sera sent to our center for confirmation, were tested by RPR and TPHA tests again. In this study it is aimed to evaluate the conventional and reverse algorithms used in syphilis diagnosis in terms of obtained data.

Material and Methods: The results of serum samples from 362 patients who had positive RPR or rapid test results and were sent to our center for confirmation between January 2014-November 2017 were re-evaluated. Conventional and reverse algorithms were analyzed retrospectively. SPSS version 23.0 package program was used for statistical analysis.

Results: Out of 362 suspected syphilis patients 147 (40.6%) RPR negative and TPHA positive; 6 (1.7%) RPR positive and TPHA negative. 173 (47.8%) RPR and TPHA positive patients were detected. When the distribution of both RPR and TPHA positivities was determined according to the years, the highest positivity was observed in the year 2017. In the conventional algorithm, 173 patients were positive and six were false positive. In the reverse algorithm, 311 patients were positive and nine were false positive.

Conclusion: As a result, it was determined that the number of syphilis positive cases mostly increased in the year 2017. In the case of suspicious patients, it is concluded that the reverse algorithm will contribute to the increase in the diagnostic capacity of syphilis.