Introduction:

The Venereal Diseases Research Laboratory test is a nontreponemal serological test, whose reactive result is useful in the diagnosis of syphilis. However, it is not specific as it is reactive due to multiple causes.

Objective:

To characterize the patients who attended the consultation with reactive serology according to variables of interest for the study.

Materials and methods:

A clinical, descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted in the Teaching Policlinic Aquiles Espinoza Salgado in the municipality of Las Tunas, Cuba. The universe was 232 patients with reactive serology during the period from January 2018 to December 2022. The variables studied were: age, sex, reason for serology, sexual orientation, causes of reactive test and diagnostic criteria in cases of reactive test due to syphilis. The information obtained was presented in tables and the results were shown in percentages.

Results:

There was a predominance of heterosexuals (93,5%), preoperative check-up as the reason for performing the test (24,6%), male sex (53%), age group between 25 and 59 years (66,4%), and unification of the three criteria for the diagnosis of syphilis (56,8%). 53,9% of the tests showed syphilis.

Conclusions:

Some variables were characterized in patients with a reactive test, highlighting that in most of them the cause was syphilis. The test was performed mainly due to causes not related to syphilis. Likewise, the prevailing diagnostic criterion for confirming syphilis was the unification of the three criteria.

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