Less than 2% of facial palsy cases are bilateral.¹ “Unlike unilateral facial palsy, it is often caused by a serious underlying systemic disease and therefore warrants urgent medical intervention,” wrote Yang and Dalal in their article “Bilateral Facial Palsy: A Clinical Approach.”² “A previously healthy 10-year-old boy presented in late August with a one-day history […]

According to the authors, “The mother initially denied history of a tick bite, yet after focused questioning, the mother stated that the child had ticks on her approximately 9 months ago.” Unfortunately, the child was not taken to her clinician because she did not develop any skin rashes which could indicate Lyme disease. The child […]

The case features a 48-year-old female with multiple sclerosis (MS) who presented to her primary care physician with a fever and sore throat. Three weeks later, she returned complaining of photophobia, eye pressure sensation, blurry vision, pain with eye movements and central scotoma on the morning prior to her visit. (A scotoma is a blurry […]

A recently published study by Sowula and colleagues provides further evidence that Lyme disease can trigger vertigo and hearing loss. In their article “Vertigo as one of the symptoms of Lyme disease,” the authors examine the frequency of vertigo symptoms and potential labyrinth damage in patients with diagnosed Lyme disease.4 The study included 38 patients […]

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 cases were classified as disseminated cases. “Lyme arthritis was the […]

The authors cited earlier research by Solomon and colleagues on the role of prior trauma in Lyme disease.²  “The investigators noted that patients who reported a higher number of lifetime traumatic events (i.e., a higher trauma score) at initial presentation were more likely to report a painful, disabling symptom course at follow-up.” Mustafiz and colleagues […]

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) of the cervical spine showed “questionable” nerve […]

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 report troponin levels.¹ High-sensitivity cardiac troponin assays have been used to identify […]

As more individuals begin to venture outside with warmer weather, there are often concerns over how to protect yourself from ticks. Researchers have examined not only the effectiveness of various repellents and protective clothing but also the behavior of individuals who are more likely to encounter ticks. Researchers in Indiana looked at the protective measures […]

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 rodents from the Mont Saint-Bruno National Park […]

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 cough, fatigue, headaches, night sweats, unintentional […]

The 37-year-old man developed Lyme myocarditis without displaying any clinical symptoms of Lyme disease. He did not recall a tick bite or rash. He resided in Germany and had been receiving immunosuppressive treatment for MPA. The man initially presented to the emergency department with fatigue, palpitations and shortness of breath, which had been ongoing for […]

Cases of Lyme Disease and COVID-19 Case 1: A 45-year-old white woman with a partial college education was working as a groundskeeper. She had a history of Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, irritable bowel syndrome, and viral meningitis. She had been ill for 37 years. There was not a history of a deer tick bite or erythema migrans. […]

A study by Schubert and Melanson, entitled “Prevalence of Lyme Disease Attributable to Military Service at the USMA, West Point NY: FY2016–2018,” looks at the exposure of military personnel and their families to the Ixodes scapularis (or black-legged) tick, the vector of Lyme disease. [1] The authors examined cases of Lyme disease treated at a […]

“The clinical presentation of Lyme arthritis (LA) of the hip can be similar to both acute bacterial septic arthritis (SA) and transient synovitis (TS),” explains Cruz and colleagues. ¹ “Differentiating between SA, LA, and TS of the hip can be challenging, even for the most discerning clinician.” But, accurately diagnosing these conditions is important since […]