TY - JOUR
T1 - Positive Lyme disease serology in patients with clinical and laboratory evidence of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis
AU - Wormser, Gary P.
AU - Horowitz, Harold W.
AU - Nowakowski, John
AU - McKenna, Donna
AU - Dumler, J. Stephen
AU - Varde, Shobha
AU - Schwartz, Ira
AU - Carbonaro, Carol
AU - Aguero-Rosenfeld, Maria
PY - 1997/2
Y1 - 1997/2
N2 - In 10 consecutive patients with an acute febrile illness, human granulocytic ehrlichiosis was confirmed with specific polymerase chain reaction studies, serologic conversion, or both. Although no patients had the clinical features most suggestive of early Lyme disease (eg, erythema migrans or cranial nerve palsy), tests for antibody to Borrelia burgdorferi produced a reaction in most patients. In 6 of 7 patients (86%) with evaluable results, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay yielded positive or equivocal findings, and an immunoblot technique yielded positive findings in 60% to 90% of patients, depending on the criteria used for interpretation. Inasmuch as approximately 25% of nymphal Ixodes scapularis ticks in Westchester County, New York, are infected with B burgdorferi, the probability that at least 9 of these patients were coinfected with B burgdorferi and human granulocytic ehrlichiosis by the same tick bite is estimated to be .00003. These observations suggest that serodiagnosis is insufficient to establish the presence of coinfection with B burgdorferi.
AB - In 10 consecutive patients with an acute febrile illness, human granulocytic ehrlichiosis was confirmed with specific polymerase chain reaction studies, serologic conversion, or both. Although no patients had the clinical features most suggestive of early Lyme disease (eg, erythema migrans or cranial nerve palsy), tests for antibody to Borrelia burgdorferi produced a reaction in most patients. In 6 of 7 patients (86%) with evaluable results, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay yielded positive or equivocal findings, and an immunoblot technique yielded positive findings in 60% to 90% of patients, depending on the criteria used for interpretation. Inasmuch as approximately 25% of nymphal Ixodes scapularis ticks in Westchester County, New York, are infected with B burgdorferi, the probability that at least 9 of these patients were coinfected with B burgdorferi and human granulocytic ehrlichiosis by the same tick bite is estimated to be .00003. These observations suggest that serodiagnosis is insufficient to establish the presence of coinfection with B burgdorferi.
KW - Borrelia burgdorferi
KW - Human granulocytic ehrlichiosis
KW - Lyme disease
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U2 - 10.1093/ajcp/107.2.142
DO - 10.1093/ajcp/107.2.142
M3 - Article
C2 - 9024062
AN - SCOPUS:0031019220
SN - 0002-9173
VL - 107
SP - 142
EP - 147
JO - American Journal of Clinical Pathology
JF - American Journal of Clinical Pathology
IS - 2
ER -