Lyme Science Blog

Lyme Arthritis in Children: Knee Swelling Without Rash Lyme arthritis in children often appears as knee swelling weeks or months after a tick bite. Because the classic rash of early Lyme disease is frequently absent or unnoticed, diagnosis may be delayed. Guardado and Sergent describe a case illustrating a common diagnostic gap: a 10-year-old girl […]

Lyme Optic Neuritis: A Rare Cause of Bilateral Vision Loss Lyme optic neuritis is a rare neurologic complication of Lyme disease that can cause inflammation of the optic nerve and progressive visual loss. Unlike typical optic neuritis, which is usually unilateral and painful, Lyme-associated optic neuritis often presents with bilateral optic nerve swelling and painless

Hearing Loss and Vertigo in Lyme Disease Hearing loss in Lyme disease can occur when infection affects the inner ear or the vestibulocochlear nerve (cranial nerve VIII). Patients may also experience vertigo, tinnitus, dizziness, and balance problems when the auditory and vestibular systems become inflamed. A recently published study by Sowula and colleagues provides further

Lower socioeconomic status: a risk factor for disseminated Lyme disease Moon et al. explored the risk factors for disseminated Lyme disease using an electronic database from the Geisinger integrated health care system located in Pennsylvania. They based their data on both diagnostic and narrative text data. One out of three of their disseminated Lyme disease

Prior Trauma May Worsen Lyme Disease Symptom Severity Prior trauma may influence the severity of symptoms in Lyme disease. Research suggests that individuals with a history of traumatic life events may experience more severe cognitive, mood, and functional symptoms after Lyme infection. The authors cited earlier research by Solomon and colleagues examining the role of

Child with Lyme disease diagnosed with radiculopathy A 10-year-old boy presented with fatigue, posterior lower neck pain, and a low-grade fever of 100.8. “The soft tissues of the posterior neck and upper back were tender with allodynia,” wrote Baker and colleagues in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.² They added, the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Could there be subclinical cardiac involvement in early Lyme disease in children? In an earlier study by Woolf and colleagues, nearly 1 in 5 children (19.6%) children with an erythema migrans (EM) rash or a positive two-tier Lyme serology had EKG evidence of carditis. Twenty-four of the children had atrioventricular (11.2%). Their study did not

Permethrin-Treated Clothing for Tick Protection Permethrin-treated clothing is one of the most effective ways to protect yourself from ticks and reduce the risk of tick-borne disease. As more individuals venture outdoors during warmer weather, concerns about tick exposure increase. Researchers have examined not only the effectiveness of tick repellents and protective clothing but also the

Birds vs. rodents in transmitting tick-borne pathogens In their study, “Transmission patterns of tick-borne pathogens among birds and rodents in a forested park in southeastern Canada,” Dumas et al. “investigated and compared the role of breeding birds to rodents in local transmission dynamics of B. burgdorferi s.s., A. phagocytophilum and B. miyamotoi, which are emerging pathogens in southeastern Canada.”¹ Researchers collected ticks and

Lyme disease triggers inflammation in “hindbrain” In their article, “Neuroborreliosis with involvement of rhombencephalon: A case report,” ¹ Svingen and colleagues describe a unique presentation in which Lyme disease triggered inflammation of the rhombencephalon, a region of the brain also referred to as the hindbrain. Over an 8-month period, the patient experienced intermittent fevers, dry