Category: Lyme Science Blog

In this case report, “Exacerbation of Osteoarthritic Joint Pain by Lyme Disease,” Bennani and colleagues demonstrate the importance in identifying an underlying tick-borne infection, as appropriate treatment can dramatically improve a patient’s quality of life.¹ A 63-year-old man, who was wheelchair-bound, presented to his clinician’s office with severe pain in both knees, which had been…

In the article “An Atypical Case Presentation of Babesiosis,” Allen and colleagues describe a unique patient who contracted Babesiosis but did not exhibit many of the typical Babesia symptoms, such as night sweats, chills, shortness of breath and weight loss.¹ Instead, his symptoms were limited to weakness, fever, tachycardia and leg pain. CASE REPORT A…

Lyme disease is typically associated with flu-like symptoms or neurologic complications but an infection with Borrelia burgdorferi (the causative agent of Lyme disease) can also cause problems with your eyes.  In their article, “Co-infectious Uveitis With Syphilis and Lyme Disease: A Case Report,”¹ Mandal and colleagues describe what they believe is the first documented case…

Lyme disease can cause an atypical skin rash, which may be overlooked by clinicians. In this case report, a 43-year-old woman, who was an avid gardener and lived in Wisconsin, developed pink papules behind her right knee.1  Over the next several days, the rash “evolved into painless vesicles with surrounding faint erythema.” She also developed…

A 74-year-old woman had been hospitalized four times over a period of three months. During these admissions, she was treated with antibiotics for a urinary tract infection, states Rosendahl and colleagues in their article “Lyme neuroborreliosis with encephalitis: A rare case.”¹ On her last admission, the woman exhibited confusion, paranoid delusions, a weight loss of…

“Our case emphasizes that Lyme disease is capable of causing a mix of symptoms, which may be difficult to interpret, leading to a delay in diagnosis,” the authors write. And these symptoms may “develop consecutively further obscuring the clinical picture.” A 69-year-old male presented to the hospital with abdominal pain and hyponatremia, a condition that…

A 23-year-old woman, who lived in Brooklyn, NY, had visited her primary care doctor complaining of bilateral knee swelling and pain. Three days prior, she had delivered a healthy baby girl. The pain was reported as 8/10 in severity and was exacerbated by walking, according to the authors. When the woman was 6 months pregnant,…

The study is of particular interest given the news that Babesia cases are on the rise. According to a recent Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there has been an alarming increase in the numbers of Babesia cases in the Northeastern U.S. [1] Eight states in this…

According to the authors, this patient presented with myocarditis-predominant Lyme carditis without cardiac conduction abnormalities – an unusual presentation given that 90% of Lyme carditis cases involve conduction abnormalities. A 57-year-old woman, who was immunocompromised and living in Florida, was admitted to the hospital for acute heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. Her symptoms included…