Lyme Science Blog

A 30-year-old man presented to the ER with “a pulse of 53/min and annular macular rash located over the anterior and posterior aspect of the left chest wall,” writes Cunha. Laboratory evidence confirmed Lyme disease by ELISA and both an IgG and IgM western blot. His ejection fraction was slightly reduced at 50%. The rash […]

Lyme disease chest pain can perfectly mimic myocardial infarction with elevated cardiac biomarkers and EKG changes indistinguishable from acute coronary syndrome. A 45-year-old woman presenting with chest pain radiating to her neck had all the hallmarks of heart attack until cardiac catheterization revealed normal coronary arteries. Only when facial palsy developed two days later was

Patients with post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS) often have normal lab tests and physical exams — yet their symptoms are real, measurable, and clinically significant. A Johns Hopkins study identified 19 symptoms that define this often-dismissed condition. Why Standard Tests Often Miss PTLDS In their article published in the journal Frontiers in Medicine, the authors

Some patients recover quickly after Lyme disease treatment. Others continue to experience fatigue, cognitive slowing, joint pain, dizziness, or sleep disruption long after antibiotics are completed. Persistent Lyme disease symptoms describe this ongoing clinical phase following infection. In medical research, this pattern is often categorized as Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS). Regardless of terminology, the

The 6-year-old girl presented with an erythema migrans (EM) rash before developing an areolar lymphocytoma involving her breast. She had recently travelled to Germany, where her parents recalled her developing an asymptomatic, annular, erythematous eruption of the right flank 1 week after a “bite,” writes Ogimi. The initial tests for Lyme disease were negative. Then,

In the January 2018 issue of the British Medical Journal, the authors describe the case of a 61-year-old man who complained to his primary care physician and multiple emergency room personnel that he was having severe shooting pain over his scalp, neck and back. “The degree of discomfort from his hair moving was so extreme

In an effort to explore the evolutionary history of the spirochete B. burgdorferi in North America, Walter and colleagues from the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Disease at Yale University collected ticks from across the USA and southern Canada between 1984 and 2013. The authors sequenced what they believe to be the largest collection of 146

The 66-year-old man became ill within a week of being bitten by a tick on the back of his neck. One month later, he collapsed and was rendered unconscious, Sharma and colleagues explain in The American Journal of Medicine. The authors describe the case in their article “Without Further Delay: Lyme carditis.” When the man was

Researchers have conducted numerous animal sentinel studies to monitor the occurrence and spread of Lyme disease. “These studies primarily focused on ticks and associated pathogens collected from domestic dogs because of their ability to produce antibodies to B. burgdorferi, attainable travel history information, and frequency of outdoor exposure,” says Hendricks. Hendricks’ team looked at confirmed