Abstract: Objective: To investigate the clinical characteristics and results of laboratory test results of symptomatic neurosyphilis. Methods: The data of cases with symptomatic neurosyphilis were collected retrospectively in our hospital from March 2014 to January 2019. All the data were analyzed by SPSS 17.0 software. Results: 71 patients with symptomatic neurosyphilis including 52 males and 19 females were collected with the age ranging from 23 to 71 years. 20 patients (28.2%) had a history of syphilis. The RPR titer was ≤1∶4 in 12 cases, 1∶8-1∶32 in 23 cases, and ≥1∶64 in 36 cases (62%), respectively. 44 cases (62%) were positive for RPR in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). There were 39 (54.9%) cases with meningovascular neurosyphilis, 6 (8.5%) cases with  meningitis neurosyphilis, 23 (32.4%) cases with paralytic dementia  and 3 (4.2%) cases with tabes dorsalis  in the group. There were significant differences of the CSF protein content among the four groups (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the serum RPR titers and  the white leukocyte counts in the CSF among the four groups. The levels of CSF protein and the positivity rates of RPR in the patients of aralytic dementia were higher than those of the patients of meningovascular neurosyphilis  (Ps＜0.05). Conclusion: The most common type of symptomatic neurosyphilis was meningovascular neurosyphilis. The high level of CSF protein may indicate the occurrence of parenchymal neurosyphilis.

Key words: neurosyphilis, RPR, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)