Aortic regurgitation in the tuskegee study of untreated syphilis

For the first time in nearly four decades, aortic regurgitation and cardiovascular morbidity occur equally in the 127 surviving syphilitic and control subjects of the long-continuing Tuskegee Study of untreated syphilis. When examined in 1968–1970, two of the living 76 syphilitics and two of 51 controls manifested findings of aortic regurgitation. All but one of the syphilitic survivors have received some amount of antiluetic therapy. Either stability or improvement of subsequent clinical courses followed therapeutic administration of penicillin to the two subjects with syphilitic aortic valvular disease. Of the subjects studied postmortem, evidence of gross and/or microscopic aortitis has continued to preponderate in the syphilitics, but the frequency of detection of focal myocardial scarring has been equal in the syphilitic and control groups at autopsy.