Category: Lyme Science Blog

A young woman presented to the emergency department with multiple tick bites and erythematous papules, along with headaches, fatigue and arthralgias. She had been walking her dog in the woods in a state park in the metropolitan area of Washington, D.C. She later found multiple ticks on her bedsheet and 30 ticks on her back,…

In their article, “Lyme-Associated Pericarditis: A Case Report and Literature Review,” Ameer and colleagues describe an 18-year-old man who developed pericarditis due to Lyme disease.1 The patient who had a medical history of asthma, irritable bowel syndrome, and obsessive-compulsive disorder presented to the emergency department with complaints of chest pain. The pain was intense –…

In their article, “Concurrent Infection of the Human Brain with Multiple Borrelia Species,” Golovchenko and colleagues describe the case involving a post-mortem brain autopsy on a man who suffered for more than 10 years with neurologic and psychiatric symptoms due to Lyme disease. The patient underwent repeated testing with “borderline positivity for Borrelia infection, followed…

The authors describe a case in which an elderly man with dementia was referred to an Alzheimer’s Disease Care Unit but later tested positive for Lyme disease. The 75-year-old man reportedly had only mild memory loss but was admitted to the unit due to hallucinations, confusion and aggressive behavior. Two weeks earlier, he was diagnosed…

In their study, “Atypical Lyme Disease Rash: A Case Report,” Khanna et al. describe the case of a 69-year-old woman, who tested negative for Lyme disease (according to CDC criteria), yet presented with an atypical Lyme rash. “Our patient only had one band positive on Western blot testing, which is not considered a positive result.”…

Although North Carolina reportedly has some of the highest incidence rates of spotted fever rickettsiosis and ehrlichiosis, there have been fewer cases of Lyme disease reported – until recently. However, “many clinicians have limited experience with Lyme disease, and diagnostic errors are common,” Boyce et al. states. Cases of Lyme disease on the rise in…

An 80-year-old man, later diagnosed with Lyme disease, was admitted to the hospital with left leg paresis [muscle weakness], along with pain and sensory disturbances in his left abdomen. He also had a rash on his left lower abdomen, severe abdominal pain and constipation. The symptoms had been ongoing for 4-5 weeks. The patient had…

Marvel and colleagues administered working memory tests to 12 subjects with Post Treatment Lyme disease (PTLD) and 18 healthy controls while undergoing functional MRI (fMRI). Investigators aimed to determine, using multimodal neuroimaging methods, how Lyme disease may affect the brain. A fMRI looks at the function of the brain by detecting the changes in blood…

According to the authors, diaphragm paralysis as a complication of Lyme disease was first reported in 1986. Since then, there have only been 4 cases involving bilateral paralysis of the diaphragm, which can cause breathing problems in patients.  “… the presented case will be the fifth described case of bilateral diaphragmatic paralysis in the course…

The young woman was admitted to the emergency department with acute pleuritic chest pain and shortness of breath. (Pleuritic chest pain is characterized by sudden and intense sharp, stabbing, or burning pain in the chest when inhaling and exhaling.) The woman exhibited only mild tachycardia (100/min). However, “Considering the suspicion of acute myocarditis, the patient…