Lyme Science Blog

Ezequiel and colleagues report on the case of a 9-year-old boy from Portugal who was diagnosed with pseudotumor cerebri due to Lyme disease. The child “was admitted with daily pulsatile frontotemporal headache, pallor, photophobia and phonophobia, without night awakening, vomiting or visual changes,” writes Ezequiel in the British Medical Journal Case Reports. [1] His neurological […]

Lyme carditis with heart block can cause non-specific symptoms and be challenging to diagnose. But, “recognizing this early would curtail the progression of conduction disorders and potentially avoid permanent pacemaker implantation,” states lead author Wan from Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada. The majority of patients (3 out of 5) visited the emergency room multiple times

In their research, Bhatia and colleagues found evidence that re-infection with the same strain reduces the infectivity of spirochetes in mice. The infectivity of spirochetes that fed on mice infected with the same strain was dramatically reduced but not eliminated. However, re-infection with a different strain increased the infectivity of the spirochete. When infected with

The three study groups were all prescribed 2 weeks of intravenous ceftriaxone. Two of the three groups were prescribed an additional 12 weeks of oral antibiotics, either doxycycline or a combination of clarithromycin with hydroxychloroquine. [1] The quality of life (QOL) for Netherlands patients with persistent symptoms associated with Lyme disease was poor before antibiotic

In their article published in The American Journal of Medicine, Paim and her team describe a 68-year-old male with progressive dyspnea and valve disease. His transesophageal echocardiogram revealed a mitral valve perforation with severe mitral valve insufficiency. The mitral valve was repaired and aortic valve replaced. The patient was prescribed ceftriaxone and azithromycin along with diuretic

The majority of Lyme disease cases are believed to occur in the Northeast, with 9.7% of cases reported in New York State, says Herrin, from Oklahoma State University, in the journal Parasites & Vectors. The rate of infected dogs is similar. “In New York State, 7.1% of pet dogs tested are seropositive [for B. burgdorferi],”

The authors collected deer ticks from 794 hunter-harvested white-tailed deer and 2 from black bears (killed by cars). An additional 6 ticks were removed from two field biologists assisting with tick collection, which took place between October 2015 and January 2017. “We combined our data (41 new county records) with data from Eisen et al.

Ticks were collected by veterinary clinics and the general public between 2014 and 2016 and sent to the university as part of a surveillance program. In evaluating the data, the authors identified “hot spots” in northern New Brunswick where I. scapularis ticks had been found on dogs. “Canine infections were generally concentrated in the south-central

According to the authors, out of the 1454 patients referred to the center, 255 (17.5%) were 65 years and older, of which 45% were males. The average age was 79, with a range from 65 to 87 years. One-third or 33% had clinical Lyme borreliosis and positive serologic tests, compared with 18% of the younger

“Recent data suggest that infection either directly or indirectly plays a major role in the pathogenesis of childhood acute ischemic stroke,” states Monteventi, from the Pediatric Neurology Unit at Geneva Children’s Hospital in Switzerland. [1] The goal of this study was to “identify all children who suffered from a stroke that can be attributed with