Archive for the ‘research’ Category

Rare Presentation of Endocarditis & Mycotic Brain Aneurysm

2019 Aug 16. pii: S0003-4975(19)31173-7. doi: 10.1016/j.athoracsur.2019.06.073. [Epub ahead of print]

Rare Presentation of Endocarditis and Mycotic Brain Aneurysm.

Beckerman Z1, Martínez-Bravo LE2, Johnson G3, Holt B3, Fraser CD4.

Author information

1
Division of Pediatric and Congenital Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care. Electronic address: zbeckerman@austin.utexas.edu.
2
Tecnologico de Monterrey, Escuela de Medicina y Ciencias de la Salud, Monterrey, Mexico; Division of Pediatric and Congenital Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care.
3
Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Dell Medical School, Dell Children’s Medical Center, Austin, Texas.
4
Division of Pediatric and Congenital Cardiothoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery and Perioperative Care; Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Dell Medical School, Dell Children’s Medical Center, Austin, Texas.

Abstract

Bartonella endocarditis can be a very elusive diagnosis. The clinical manifestations can vary and, at times, include multiorgan involvement. This case report describes two patients presenting with multiorgan failure, cerebral mycotic aneurysms and valvular endocarditis secondary to Bartonella infection. The complex diagnosis, decision making, and surgical management are described.

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**Comment**

It’s unfortunate that once again the study authors choose the word “rare” regarding Bartonella and/or any tick-borne infection manifestations, as even the most hardened critics admit these pathogens are prevalent and can have highly variable presentations. It would have been much more appropriate that the authors would state it’s the first time these particular findings have been published rather than give people the impression something occurs rarely.

Lyme patients and the doctors treating this appropriately are acutely aware of potential heart involvement:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/06/04/how-vector-borne-diseases-impact-heart-health/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/06/03/heart-problems-tick-borne-disease/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/01/04/endocarditis-consider-bartonella/

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/05/11/bartonella-henselae-in-children-with-congenital-heart-disease/

Again, please keep in mind that current 2-tiered CDC testing is based on blood tests that misses half of all cases and do not look for the organism but the body’s immune response (antibodies):  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/12/16/laboratory-testing-for-lyme-disease/  Current CDC guidelines were created for surveillance purposes only but are being used diagnostically. All patients should be informed that they can still be infected despite a negative test. 

Also, please be aware of the conflicts of interest regarding patents on testing:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/06/28/who-owns-the-elisa-patents/

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There are going to be patients with heart symptoms that have an underlying tick-borne illness but test negatively (seronegative). These people are falling through the cracks of the medical symptom yet could be greatly helped with appropriate antimicrobial treatment. If you suspect you are one of these people or suspect others, please give the validated Horowitz questionnaire to them to take to their practitioner:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/09/05/empirical-validation-of-the-horowitz-questionnaire-for-suspected-lyme-disease/ It also takes an open mind and trained eye to diagnose these patients, and it can be Lyme, Baronella, or any one of many pathogens transmitted by ticks:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/08/22/early-diagnosis-necessitates-lyme-savvy-doctors/  I hope doctors are waking up to the growing need for education regarding the growing link between tick-borne illness and heart issues.

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

Bartonella, Heart Issues, Lyme, research, Testing

Viral Diversity of Tick Species Parasitizing Cattle and Dogs in Trinidad and Tobago

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-46914-1

Published:

Viral Diversity of Tick Species Parasitizing Cattle and Dogs in Trinidad and Tobago

Stephen Sameroff, Rafal Tokarz,Roxanne Albertha Charles,Komal Jain, Alexandra Oleynik,Xiaoyu Che,Karla Georges,Christine V. Carrington,W. Ian Lipkin &Chris Oura

Scientific Reports volume 9, Article number: 10421 (2019) | Download Citation

Abstract

Ticks are vectors of a wide variety of pathogens that are implicated in mild to severe disease in humans and other animals. Nonetheless, the full range of tick-borne pathogens is unknown. Viruses, in particular, have been neglected in discovery efforts targeting tick-borne agents. High throughput sequencing was used to characterize the virome of 638 ticks, including Rhipicephalus microplus (n = 320), Rhipicephalus sanguineus (n = 300), and Amblyomma ovale (n = 18) collected throughout Trinidad and Tobago in 2017 and 2018. Sequences representing nine viruses were identified, including five novel species within Tymovirales, Bunyavirales, Chuviridae, Rhabdoviridae, and Flaviviridae. Thereafter the frequency of detection of viral sequences in individual tick species was investigated.

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**Comment**

Understatement of the year: “Viruses, in particular, have been neglected in discovery efforts targeting tick-borne agents.”

What happens when a person contracts Lyme disease and tick-borne viruses at the same time?
Answer: Nobody knows.

Fact from the past: Dr. Allen Steere, the first to be on the scene in Connecticut’s outbreak, first believed the outbreak to be viral:  https://sites.google.com/site/jerryleonard999/home/allen-steere-psychopath-at-large#  He also insisted that Ixodes ticks are the only ones capable of transmitting Lyme and that any long-term damage was due to the patient’s immune system. Dr. Burrascano demonstrated that Steere’s patients that were treated and stated to be “cured,” were still infected by biopsies, cultures, and DNA probes. Steere’s stance is one and the same with the IDSA and the CDC.

Are viruses an unknown entity in Lyme/MSIDS that few have considered?
Answer: I’ve heard enough to make me wonder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Category:

research, Ticks, Viruses

Got Ticks? Send & Help IPM

The IPM Institute (Integrated Pest Management) is seeking donations of tick specimens from different regions to examine during the Tick IPM Academy on Nov. 6 & 7, 2019. Please mail in ticks at least a week before. Below is the IPM Institute’s address where specimens you wish to donate may be sent.

This is for examination only – no pathogen reporting will occur.

The IPM Institute of North America, Inc.
ATTN: Maria Weber
211 S. Paterson Street, Suite 380
Madison, Wisconsin 53703

Thank you,

Maria Weber
Team Member, Sustainable Food Group
Office: (608) 232-1410 x 1009

IPM Institute of North America, Inc.<http://ipminstitute.org/>

Details about annual Tick IPM Academy: FINAL Tick IPM Academy Announcement 082719

 

 

Category:

Activism, research, Ticks

MyLymeData Highlights

https://www.lymedisease.org/2019-mylymedata-highlights.pdf?

All sorts of nifty graphs and charts on patients taking part in the project. If you haven’t added your information yet, go here to do so: https://www.mylymedata.org/

For more: https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/05/02/mylymedata-2019-report/

 

Category:

Activism, Lyme, research

Babesia Microti – Borrelia Burgdorferi Coinfection

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0817/8/3/117/htm

Pathogens 2019, 8(3), 117; https://doi.org/10.3390/pathogens8030117

Review

Babesia microti—Borrelia burgdorferi Coinfection

Nikhat Parveen * and Purnima Bhanot *
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Department of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, Newark, NJ 07103, USA
*Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 15 May 2019 / Accepted: 26 July 2019 / Published: 31 July 2019

Abstract

The incidence and geographic distribution of human babesiosis is growing in the U.S. Its major causative agent is the protozoan parasite, Babesia microti. B. microtiis transmitted to humans primarily through the bite ofIxodes scapularis ticks, which are vectors for a number of other pathogens. Other routes of B. microti transmission are blood transfusion and in rare cases of mother-to-foetus transmission, through the placenta. This review discusses the current literature on mammalian coinfection with B. microtiand Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent Lyme disease.
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**Comment**
Please see above link for entire study.  Highlights:
  • B. microti and Borrelia burgdorferi coinfection is common in vector (ticks) & host (animals & humans)
  • In endemic regions, almost 20% of Lyme disease patients reported concurrent babesiosis while up to 25% of babesiosis patients also had Lyme disease
  • A large percentage of patients with chronic/post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (52%) show evidence of past or active Babesia coinfection
  • There is some evidence that coinfections with a different Babesia species, B. duncani, and B. Burgdorferi may be more common than previously suspected.
  • Of the two studies that have examined B. microti—B. burgdorferi coinfection on humans both studies found patients reported symptoms of greater variety and longer duration than those infected with Bb alone
  • In C3H mice, B. microti coinfection exacerbates symptoms of arthritis caused by B. burgdorferi because B. microti causes splenic dysfunction that reduces B- and T-cell function and the production of antibodies required to control Bb infection
  • It aptly points out that besides infected ticks, humans can become infected with Babesia congenitally as well as by blood transfusions.

Recently these two articles essentially found divergent outcomes. This article shows Babesia is widespread in Canada https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2018/12/11/babesia-widespread-in-canada-its-high-tolerance-to-therapy/, while this one states it’s rare:  https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2019/08/21/prevalence-of-babesia-in-canadian-blood-donors-june-october-2018/

The only conclusion that can be made is that blood testing is not picking it up. I’ve read over and over that Babesia is rarely detected using one diagnostic test alone.

Yet, if I am reading this properly, they only used one test. If a sample was reactive, only then did they test it further – kind of like using 2-tiered testing for Lyme when you only move onto the Western Blot IF you test positive first using the Elisa. So these patient samples were tested only once at the beginning to determine who had reactive samples to Babesia.

This testing discrepancy that differs from reality is true for all tick-borne diseases and practitioners need to become educated in this fact as well as understand the importance of symptomology to determine a clinical diagnosis. The continued stubbornness of utilizing poor testing to weed out people in the beginning is foolish. It only seems logical to cast a wider net in the beginning rather than a narrower one. Everyone knows testing is abysmal, yet it’s followed like the Pied Piper to the doom of patients.

People are going to continue to fly under the radar with these pathogens until better testing is developed. Mainstream medicine has been lobotomized and is functioning without the capacity of a brain.

 

Category:

Babesia, Lyme, research