Lyme Science Blog

One study found black patients with Lyme disease were more likely to present with disseminated disease. The authors suggested, “This may be due to failure to recognize early disease (erythema migrans) among African Americans, resulting in increased rates of late manifestations.”¹ Ly reported similar results using 2015–2016 claims data sample of Traditional Medicare beneficiaries. “Among […]

In the study “The Spectrum of Erythema Migrans in Early Lyme Disease: Can We Improve Its Recognition?,” investigators examined images of lesions from 69 participants, including 43 men and 26 women, suspected to have early Lyme disease.  The majority of participants (83%) presented with a single lesion.¹ The images were retrospectively evaluated by a dermatologist

The authors recruited their participants through a Lyme disease-focused organization, but eligibility was open to anyone over 18 years of age who had been pregnant. They included participants who did not develop symptoms until after their pregnancies and individuals who were not treated for Lyme disease (LD) for years after their pregnancy despite being symptomatic

In the study “Prevalence of Lyme Carditis in Patients with Atrioventricular Blocks,” Kaczmarek and colleagues aim to identify patients in whom Lyme carditis (LC) should be considered as the underlying cause of AV conduction disturbances.¹ Investigators examined 130 patients with AVB who had been consecutively admitted over a 12-month period, to the Department of Electrocardiology

In the article “Failure of an Approximately Six Week Course of Tafenoquine to Completely Eradicate Babesia microti Infection in an Immunocompromised Patient,” Prasad and Wormser describe a chronic relapsing Babesia infection in an elderly woman.¹ The 74-year-old patient was admitted to the hospital in August 2021 with a 2-day history of fatigue and fevers. She

The following blogs were the most popular for readers in 2022. (Click on the headline to read the full blog.)  1) Tafenoquine: Treatment for relapsing Babesia This case report describes an immunocompromised patient with Babesia microti who received treatment with tafenoquine after experiencing several relapses. The 36-year-old man was hospitalized in 2019 due to unexplained

In their article “Coexisting Thyroiditis and Carditis in a Patient with Lyme Disease: Looking for a Unifying Diagnosis,” Zarghamravanbakhsh and colleagues described the case of a 53-year-old woman who was found to have carditis and painless, autoimmune thyroiditis, likely due to Lyme disease.¹ A few days after returning from a trip to Delaware, the woman

“Distinguishing Lyme arthritis (LA), the most common manifestation of the disease in children, from septic arthritis (SA) can be challenging because of overlap in clinical presentations,” the authors state. In this study, investigators “assessed the predictive value of MRI as an aid in identifying LA.” They examined the medical records and MRI scans of children

In their article “Early Lyme neuroborreliosis manifesting as brachial plexopathy and meningitis in Northwestern Ontario, Canada,” Gu and colleagues describe a case of Lyme disease presenting as brachial plexopathy and meningitis.1 The 76-year-old man was initially admitted to the hospital with left arm weakness and neck pain. He also had a 3-day history of body

Findings from a study by Johnson and Maloney, “Access to Care in Lyme Disease: Clinician Barriers to Providing Care,” provide some insight into why clinicians may be hesitant in treating Lyme disease.¹ “The primary goal of this study was to identify the challenges faced by clinicians who provide care for patients with PLD/CLD,” the authors