Borrelia burgdorferi–Specific Immune Complexes in Acute Lyme Disease
CONTEXT Diagnosis of infection with Borrelia burgdorferi, the cause of Lyme disease (LD), has been impeded by the lack of effective assays to detect active infection. OBJECTIVE To determine whether B burgdorferi–specific immune complexes are detectable during active infection in LD. DESIGN, SETTING,...
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Published in | JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 282; no. 20; pp. 1942 - 1946 |
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Main Authors | , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Chicago, IL
American Medical Association
24.11.1999
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | CONTEXT Diagnosis of infection with Borrelia burgdorferi,
the cause of Lyme disease (LD), has been impeded by the lack of effective
assays to detect active infection. OBJECTIVE To determine whether B burgdorferi–specific
immune complexes are detectable during active infection in LD. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS Cross-sectional analysis of serum samples from 168 patients fulfilling
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveillance criteria for LD and
145 healthy and other disease controls conducted over 8 years. Tests were
performed blinded. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Detection of B burgdorferi immune complexes
by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blot. RESULTS The B burgdorferi immune complexes were found
in 25 of 26 patients with early seronegative erythema migrans (EM) LD; 105
of 107 patients with seropositive EM LD; 6 of 10 patients who were seronegative
with culture-positive EM; 0 of 12 patients who were treated and recovered
from LD; and 13 of 13 patients with neurologic LD without EM. Among 147 controls, B burgdorferi immune complex was found in 0 of 50 healthy
individuals; 0 of 40 patients with persistent fatigue; 0 of 7 individuals
with frequent tick exposure; and 2 of 50 patients with other diseases. CONCLUSION These data suggest that B burgdorferi immune
complex formation is a common process in active LD. Analysis of the B burgdorferi immune complexes by a simple technique has
the potential to support or exclude a diagnosis of early as well as active
LD infection. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0098-7484 1538-3598 |
DOI: | 10.1001/jama.282.20.1942 |