Archive for the ‘research’ Category

LD in Hemifacial Spasm

Hemifacial Spasm From Lyme Disease: Antibiotic Treatment Points to the Cause

LeWitt TM.

Clinical Neuropharmacology, online first, 2016 Oct 14.

http://doi.org/10.1097/WNF.0000000000000193

Abstract

A wide range of etiologies can cause hemifacial spasm (HFS), including infection. In this case report, a 44-year-old woman developed HFS and was explored surgically 7 years later. No abnormalities were found.

Afterward, treatment of a surgical wound infection with an oral cephalosporin resulted in a temporary HFS remission that had never occurred previously. This antibiotic experience prompted further workup for an underlying infection, which ultimately led to diagnosis of Lyme disease.

Presentation of HFS due to Lyme disease has not been reported. Because its diagnosis can be occult and antibiotic therapy can be both diagnostic and therapeutic, Lyme disease should be a consideration for cases of HFS.

http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/brain,-spinal-cord,-and-nerve-disorders/cranial-nerve-disorders/hemifacial-spasm  Hemifacial spasm is painless involuntary twitching of one side of the face due to malfunction of the 7th cranial nerve (facial nerve). This nerve moves the facial muscles, stimulates the salivary and tear glands, enables the front two thirds of the tongue to detect tastes, and controls a muscle involved in hearing.  The diagnosis is made when doctors see the spasms.

Treatment:  Botulinum toxin, sometimes surgery

Botulinum toxin is the drug of choice. It is injected into the affected muscles. The same drugs used to treat trigeminal neuralgia—carbamazepine, gabapentin, phenytoin, baclofen, and tricyclic antidepressants (see Table: Drugs Used to Treat Depression)—may be tried but are usually not helpful.  If drug treatment is unsuccessful, surgery may be done to separate the abnormal artery from the nerve by placing a small sponge between them.

This case is another great example of doctors stumbling upon a diagnosis of LD due to positive results after antibiotic therapy.  Also, due to an “official” reporting, hopefully doctors will consider LD in their differential diagnosis with other patients presenting with hemifacial spasming.  I can’t help but wonder how many doctors would not even consider LD because there had been no “official” reporting in the past.

Category:

Lyme, research, Uncategorized

Survival of B. Miyamotoi

https://experiment-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/file-attachments/7615/nDAfJhZdSeu93R5i5nrC_Thorp_et_al-2016-Transfusion%20B%20miyamotoi.pdf

Transfusion Complications: Volume 56, March 2016

Aaron M. Thorp and Laura Tonnetti

BACKGROUND: Borrelia miyamotoi, the agent of relapsing fever, is a tick-borne spirochete first isolated in Japan in 1994. Since then, the spirochete has been detected in ticks globally, generally in the same vectors as the Lyme disease agent. Human infection has been reported in Russia, Europe, Japan, and the United States, as influenza-like febrile illness. In addition, two cases of meningoencephalitis caused by B. miyamotoi have also been reported in immunocompromised patients. Here we evaluate the ability of the spirochete to survive in human blood components stored under standard blood bank conditions.

STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: Freshly collected human whole blood was spiked with in vitro cultured B. miyamotoi or B. miyamotoi–infected mouse plasma and separated into red blood cells (RBCs), plasma, and platelets. Components were either injected into immunocompromised (SCID) or wild-type immunocompetent mice or cultured in vitro, right after separation and after storage at the appropriate conditions. Infection was monitored by microscopic observation, blood smears, and polymerase chain reaction.

RESULTS: In vivo, all the SCID mice challenged with the components before storage and the RBCs stored for up to 42 days developed the infection. Wild-type mice also developed the infection when injected with prestorage samples from all components, while a lower number of mice were infected by RBCs stored for 42 days. In vitro, spirochetes grew in all samples but frozen plasma.

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that B. miyamotoi can survive standard storage conditions of most human blood components, suggesting the possibility of transmission by blood transfusion.

Category:

Lyme, research

Unlike Mosquitoes, Ticks Year Long Threat

http://www.omaha.com/living/move-over-mosquitoes-tick-fight-takes-attention/article_996c6495-f986-59cf-8649-6bfd46fc4209.html

According to the Companion Animal Parasite Council (CAPC) 2016 is going to be a banner year for ticks, with the CDC listing 15 different tick borne diseases (TBI’s) which range from debilitating to fatal.

The council sates that they thrive everywhere from wooded areas to gardens, landscape plants and even backyard grasses with most people coming into contact with them in their own backyards.

The article states a big help in lowering the tick population is by deterring deer from your living area by planting vegetation deer don’t like to building a tall fence, although they can jump over fences as high as 10 feet. They state a foliar spray such as Bobbex Deer Repellent is effective year-round and supposedly safe for use around children and pets and won’t wash off from rain or snow. It was found to be 93% effective in deterring deer when compared to other like repellents.

According to Sam Telford, a professor of infectious diseases at Tufts, “One or two years of severe weather may depress their numbers, but remember….the successful feeding of one female tick on a deer translates to 2,000 eggs.”

Many believe that ticks are not active in the winter. Unfortunately, this is a myth.

https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2016/01/20/polar-vorticks/

Category:

Anaplasmosis, Babesia, Bartonella, Lyme, Mycoplasma, research, Ticks, Viruses

Bb and WhiteTailed Deer

http://doi.org/10.1111/mve.12191  A. ROOME, L. HILL, V. AL-FEGHALI, C. G. MURNOCK, J. A. GOODSELL, R. SPATHIS, R. M. GARRUTO  Medical and Veterinary Entomology

Abstract  

There is a public perception that the white-tailed deer Odocoileus virginianus (Artiodactyla: Cervidae) is the main reservoir supporting the maintenance and spread of the causative agent of Lyme disease, Borrelia burgdorferi. This study examines the pathogen prevalence rate of Borrelia in adult Ixodes scapularis (Ixodida: Ixodidae), the black-legged tick, collected from white-tailed deer and compares it with pathogen prevalence rates in adult ticks gathered by dragging vegetation in two contiguous counties west of the Hudson Valley in upstate New York.

In both Broome and Chenango Counties, attached and unattached ticks harvested from white-tailed deer had significantly lower prevalences of B. burgdorferi than those collected from vegetation. No attached ticks on deer (n = 148) in either county, and only 2.4 and 7.3% of unattached ticks (n = 389) in Broome and Chenango Counties, respectively, were harbouring the pathogen. This contrasts with the finding that 40.8% of ticks in Broome County and 46.8% of ticks in Chenango County collected from vegetation harboured the pathogen.

These data suggest that a mechanism in white-tailed deer may aid in clearing the pathogen from attached deer ticks, although white-tailed deer do contribute to the spatial distribution of deer tick populations and also serve as deadend host breeding sites for ticks.

 

Category:

Lyme, research, Ticks

Infected Ticks in Ontario

http://www.medsci.org/v13p0881.htm  Scott JD, Foley JE, Clark KL, Anderson JF, Durden LA, Manord JM, Smith ML. Established Population of Blacklegged Ticks with High Infection Prevalence for the Lyme Disease Bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato, on Corkscrew Island, Kenora District, Ontario. Int J Med Sci 2016; 13(11):881-891. doi:10.7150/ijms.16922.

Abstract

We document an established population of blacklegged ticks, Ixodes scapularis, on Corkscrew Island, Kenora District, Ontario, Canada.

Primers of the outer surface protein A (OspA) gene, the flagellin (fla) gene, and the flagellin B (flaB) gene were used in the PCR assays to detect Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.), the Lyme disease bacterium. In all, 60 (73%) of 82 adult I. scapularis, were infected with B. burgdorferi s.l. As well, 6 (43%) of 14 unfed I. scapularis nymphs were positive for B. burgdorferi s.l. An I. scapularis larva was also collected from a deer mouse, and several unfed larvae were gathered by flagging leaf litter.

Based on DNA sequencing of randomly selected Borrelia amplicons from six nymphal and adult I. scapularis ticks, primers for the flagellin (fla) and flagellin B (flaB) genes reveal the presence of B. burgdorferi sensu stricto (s.s.), a genospecies pathogenic to humans and certain domestic animals. We collected all 3 host-feeding life stages of I. scapularis in a single year, and report the northernmost established population of I. scapularis in Ontario. Corkscrew Island is hyperendemic for Lyme disease and has the highest prevalence of B. burgdorferi s.l. for any established population in Canada.

Because of this very high infection prevalence, this population of I. scapularis has likely been established for decades. Of epidemiological significance, cottage owners, island visitors, outdoors enthusiasts, and medical professionals must be vigilant that B. burgdorferi s.l.-infected I. scapularis on Corkscrew Island pose a serious public health risk.

Category:

Lyme, research, Ticks