Lyme Science Blog

The patient was evaluated in the emergency room with presyncope (lightheadedness, muscle weakness) and worsening fatigue. Telemetry monitoring demonstrated a “2:1 AV block alternating with complete heart block and a junctional escape rhythm in the range of 30 beats per minute,” according to Chaudhry and colleagues. [1] Doctors suspected Lyme disease and started intravenous ceftriaxone, […]

by Daniel J. Cameron, MD MPH “On presentation to our hospital, the patient continued to complain of severe headaches and was noted to have mild unilateral right-sided facial droop and a diffuse macular rash throughout the body,” explains Kantamaneni in his article, A Case of Early Disseminated Neurological Lyme Disease Followed by Atypical Cutaneous Manifestations.

“The patient is a 12-year-old previously healthy boy with a recent history of participation in an outdoor camp for 2–3 weeks who began to gasp for air while riding as a passenger in a car, with subsequent cyanosis and cardiac arrest, following participation in recreational outdoor activities earlier that afternoon,” states Cunningham from the Division

by Daniel J. Cameron, MD MPH The seroprevalence of positive tests for B. burgdorferi in dogs was highest in areas with close proximity to the United States. The highest seroprevalence was 15.7% in Nova Scotia and 5.1% in Eastern Ontario with surrounding areas of “moderate to low seroprevalence,” according to the study’s lead author, Herrin,

Feng and colleagues from Johns Hopkins University have identified FDA-approved drugs that might work on in vitro B. burgdorferi persisters. [2] Persistence may be a subset of dormancy. “Evidence suggests dormancy consists of a continuum of interrelated states including viable but nonculturable (VBNC) and persistence states,” according to Mali. “VBNC and persistence contribute to antibiotic

by Daniel J. Cameron, MD MPH Susan, a 7-year-old girl who had difficulty focusing in school, was initially diagnosed by a neurologist with probable attention deficit disorder. But she exhibited numerous other symptoms consistent with Lyme disease, as described by Fallon from the Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center and the Lyme Disease Research

More than half of the cases were from three countries: 16 (25.4%) from Germany, 9 (14.3%) from Switzerland, and 8 (12.7%) from France. Five cases (8%) were from the United States, notes Garkowski from the Medical University of Białystok in Poland. [1] Many of the cases involved relatively young patients, with more than 50% under

by Daniel J. Cameron, MD MPH In the Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, the authors report a substantial number of patients who suffered from severe fatigue, pain and Post-Treatment Lyme disease Syndrome (PTLDS) six months after completing a three-week course of antibiotics for an erythema migrans rash. [4] Out of 107 patients,  6 of the 107

by Daniel J. Cameron, MD MPH The cut-offs for fatigue and pain were chosen to reflect clinically significant levels of that symptom based on the literature. A cut-off of 36 or greater was chosen for the Fatigue Severity Score (FSS) to indicate “high fatigue symptoms.” A score of greater than 3 was chosen for the

by Daniel J. Cameron, MD MPH In the article, published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, Pavletic, from the National Institute of Mental Health, reports “two cases of false positive Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) serologies in early-disseminated Lyme disease.” In the first case, a 16-year-old male from Virginia developed fatigue, myalgias and three brief episodes of