VDRL: Causes of chronic biological false positive reactions

' SLIM  He-ART '

• SLE - Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
• Lepromatous leprosy
• IMN - Infectious Mononucleosis
• Malaria
• Hepatitis
• Autoimmune diseases
• Relapsing fever
• Tropical eosinophilia

Did you know?

In VDRL, serum from the suspect is mixed with the cardiolipin antigen on special slide and rotated for 4 minutes. The cardioloipin antigen remains as uniform crystals if the serum is normal and will form clumps in positive serum (due to reaction with the antibody present in positive sera). As cardiolipin antigen is present both in Treponema pallidum and mammalian tissues, antibodies can be induced by both which accounts for Biological False positive reactions (BFPs) and forms the major disadvantage of this test.