VDRL

Can VDRL Pick antibodies?

[Teak]

Not for HIV.

[premant]

syphilis -

* This is a blood test, and is usually accurate by about 6 weeks, though it may take longer in rare cases.  

The 2 most common are the RPR (rapid plasma reagin ) and VDRL (Venereal Disease Research Laboratory test).  If this comes back positive, or "reactive", then a confirmatory test must be done.  (A negative test will most likely read as "non-reactive".)

Confirmation tests could be either an FTA-ABS (Fluorescent treponemal antibody-absorption) test, TPHA and MHA-TP (Treponema pallidum hemagglutination assays), TP-PA (Treponema pallidum particle agglutination assay).  There are others, but those are the most common.  

If you have a chancre (sore), they can culture it, but that isn't done as frequently as it used to be.