Archive for the ‘Testing’ Category

Ischemic Stroke With Hemorrhagic Conversion in a Case of Lyme Neuroborreliosis

https://www.cureus.com/articles/97069-ischemic-stroke-with-hemorrhagic-conversion-in-a-case-of-lyme-neuroborreliosis

Ischemic Stroke With Hemorrhagic Conversion in a Case of Lyme Neuroborreliosis

Srinandan Sathi, Daniel Kim, Patrick Duplan, Paul Kim, Carl Shenkamn

Published: August 15, 2022 (see history)

DOI: 10.7759/cureus.28028

Cite this article as: Sathi S, Kim D, Duplan P, et al. (August 15, 2022) Ischemic Stroke With Hemorrhagic Conversion in a Case of Lyme Neuroborreliosis. Cureus 14(8): e28028. doi:10.7759/cureus.28028

Abstract

Lyme disease is an infectious tick-borne illness predominant in northeastern and midwestern United States. The clinical presentation varies significantly and only a few cases develop Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB), which makes diagnosis difficult. A 59-year-old male visiting from Michigan presented to a hospital in Florida with an ischemic stroke with aphasia and acute confusion for two days. He had imaging that noted a subacute infarct in the left parietal lobe along with multiple areas of white matter signal abnormalities and CSF serology positive for Borrelia burgdorferi IgM and IgG antibodies. The patient was placed on ceftriaxone for 30 days and showed significant clinical improvement. We present a case of ischemic stroke with hemorrhagic conversion and an incidental finding of LNB.

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**Comment**

There is no way on earth that only a few cases develop Lyme neuroborrliosis.  This statement shows the researcher’s complete disconnect from reality.

Testing is so abysmal, thousands fall through the diagnostic crack.  Then, if they manage to win the lottery and test positive, they are told it’s a “false positive,” and to “go home and be well.”

This patient in fact did win the lottery and managed to get diagnosed in Florida, which like all Southern states has had to fight tooth and nail to get public health to even recognize it.  And that probably wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for infected researcher, Kerry Clark, who is finding Southern borrelia strains that will never be picked up in a million years using current CDC two-tier testing.  He also showed DNA of Bbsl in Lone Star ticks which might be a bridge vector of transmission to humans, but is still considered by ‘the powers that be’ to not transmit Lyme disease.  Instead, infected Southerners have been told they have STARI, a disease that looks, acts, and smells just like Lyme.

This patient, despite showing significant improvement, requires follow-up which will never happen.  If and when symptoms reappear he will simply be told it’s all “in his head.”

Category:

Lyme, Psychological Aspects, research, Testing, Treatment

Spotting the Target: Clinical Clues in the Diagnosis of Disseminated Lyme Disease in Pregnancy

https://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(22)00203-4/fulltext

Spotting the target: clinical clues in the diagnosis of disseminated Lyme disease in pregnancy

Published:March 18, 2022 DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2022.03.03

A 33-year-old G2P1 woman at 33 weeks’ gestation presented with 10 days of bifrontal headache despite treatment with sertraline, butalbital-acetaminophen-caffeine, and prochlorperazine and 2 days of pruritic body rash (Figure 1).

Blood pressure and urine protein: creatinine ratio were within normal limits, but she had mild transaminitis. Her rash was originally thought to be caused by a drug-induced hypersensitivity reaction, however, in addition to a generalized morbilliform eruption, a physical examination revealed a large annular erythematous patch with a dusky center on the left popliteal fossa (Figure 2)  and similar smaller annular lesions on the buttocks and legs (Figures 3 and 4).

The findings of large and multiple erythema migrans lesions and associated headache prompted a high suspicion for disseminated Lyme disease with neurologic involvement. Serum tests for Lyme disease, including whole-cell enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and Western blot (for immunoglobulins M and G), were positive. A lumbar puncture revealed elevated red blood cells and nucleated cells in the cerebrospinal fluid consistent with neurologic involvement of Lyme disease. The patient recovered with intravenous ceftriaxone for 2 weeks for disseminated Lyme disease. She delivered a healthy baby boy at 40 weeks’ gestation.

(See link for article)

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**Comment**

Unfortunately many do not remain “recovered” after only 2 weeks of antibiotics.  This woman and her baby need to be watched over time.  If mysterious, migrating symptoms continue – they need retreatment.

This is a perfect example of a glaring problem with Lyme/MSIDS.  Mainstream medicine treats it as they do other infections when this is a relapsing illness that is stealthy, embeds itself in the human body, (making it hard for treatments to reach it) is often polymicrobial (numerous pathogens that require different medications), is pleomorphic (changes forms) so the body can’t recognize it as a “bad guy,” and is often relapsing (reappears) at a later date due to stress when the body is in a weakened state.

Please read a few articles to understand these issues better:

For more on Lyme/MSIDS in pregnancy:

Category:

Lyme, Pregnancy, research, Testing, Treatment

Patients Want Canadians to Know About Lesser-Known Tick-Borne Diseases

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/be-vigilant-patients-want-canadians-to-know-about-lesser-known-tick-borne-diseases

‘Be vigilant’: Patients want Canadians to know about lesser-known tick-borne diseases

While these infections are indeed spreading, it has nothing to do with the climate.  Faulty climate change maps which have been used to push a ‘climate change’ agenda have been debunked, with many experts finally coming forth and denying that man has anything to do with the climate at all.
Important to note: neither of these spreading pathogens are listed as a nationally notifiable disease in Canada, which simply means nobody has a clue as to their prevalence.  This is true for many of the “lesser  known” tick-borne diseases as well, and is a real problem.  You can’t state how big a problem is if you aren’t even looking for it.
One of the patients sent her tick to a private lab and paid out of pocket for tests that look for a wide range of pathogens. 
This is another real problem that needs to be addressed.  Since everyone and their brother knows ticks are spreading everywhere and are often infected with pathogens transmitted to animals and humans, tick testing should be widely available and FREE.  There is no tick testing for the public right here in Wisconsin, an epicenter for Lyme, Powassan, and other infections.  This simply shouldn’t be.
Rather than fund more faulty, erroneous climate change research, how about we fund labs for something practical like testing ticks and all the pathogens they carry?
Since so many patients slip through the cracks, testing ticks directly would help us know what pathogens are in an area and an idea about prevalence.

This information; however, should never be used against patients, which has happened historically.  The lunacy of telling someone they can’t have Lyme disease because certain ticks don’t exist there or “there aren’t any recorded cases,” is shear madness and defies all sound logic.  Ticks travel everywhere due to migrating birds and other animals that don’t understand borders.

For more:

To be clear, a test only picks up what it is created to pick up.  To this day, many strains of of the pathogens infecting humans do not have testing, and those that do aren’t accurate.

Category:

Activism, Babesia, Rickettsia, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Testing, Ticks, Transmission

Molecular Detection of Anaplasma, Babesia odocoilei, Babesia spp. & Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato in Songbirds

https://www.jelsciences.com/articles/jbres1619.pdf

Molecular Detection of Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia odocoilei, Babesia species and Borrelia burgdorferi Sensu Lato in Songbirds

John D Scott1 *, Elena McGoey2, Ana Morales3 and Risa R Pesapane2,4 1 Upper Grand Tick Centre, 365 St. David Street South, Fergus, Ontario, N1M 2L7, Canada 2 School of Environmental and Natural Resources, College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA 3 McGill Bird Observatory, Ste Anne de Bellevue, QC, Canada H9X 0A6 4 Department of Veterinary Preventive Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, The Ohio State University, 1920 Coffey Rd., Columbus, OH 43210, USA

Abstract

The blacklegged tick, Ixodes scapularis, is known to carry various tick-borne zoonotic pathogens with the potential to cause debilitating human and animal diseases. Juvenile I. scapularis parasitize songbirds and, perhaps, these avifauna are competent hosts of common microbial pathogens. We extracted brachial venous blood from 18 groundforaging passerine birds that were parasitized by I. scapularis larvae and nymphs. Using molecular identification, namely PCR, DNA sequencing, and Basic Local Alignment Search Tool (BLAST), we targeted Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Babesia spp. and Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato. Overall,

  • 15 (83%) of 18 passerine birds were positive for 3 microbial zoonotic pathogens that comprised of A. phagocytophilum (n = 8), Babesia odocoilei (n = 6), Babesia spp. 20-5A74 (n = 1), and B. burgdorferi sensu lato (n = 9).
  • The pathogen load consisted of 8 singles, 5 doubles, and 2 triples.
  • One novel Babesia sp. (Babesia spp. 20-5A74) was found, and the remaining Babesia infections were B. odocoilei.

Our findings reveal that ground-foraging, passerine birds are avian hosts of zoonotic pathogens. We provide the first-ever documentation that songbirds are hosts of B. odocoilei. Based on our data, B. odocoilei outnumbered other Babesia spp., and elucidated the authentic fact that B. odocoilei is the predominant Babesia sp. in North America. As avian hosts, passerine birds play a significant role in the enzootic transmission cycle of B. burgdorferi sensu lato, A. phagocytophilum, and Babesia species.

Important excerpts:

In the USA, tick researchers have reported B. odocoilei in Indiana [41-43], Michigan [44] Maine [42,43], Massachusetts [41-43], New York [45], Oklahoma [46,47], Pennsylvania [48,49] Texas [50,51], Virginia [52], and Wisconsin [42,43]. As well, B. odocoilei has been detected in I. pacificus in California [53]. In Canada, B. odocoilei has been detected in Saskatchewan [54], Ontario [7,15,55-59], and Quebec [55,57,58]. And yet, acarologists and ecologists have not reported B. microti in these three provinces [7,15,21,55-59]. Babesia odocoilei, which is a sequestering Babesia sp., can be recalcitrant to treat in human patients [7].

Not only do groundfrequenting songbirds transport ticks, they may also be hosts for tick-borne, zoonotic pathogens. Migratory songbirds widely disperse zoonotic pathogens across North America and, therefore, one does not have to frequent or live in an endemic area to contract human babesiosis caused by B. odocoilei.

For more:

Category:

Anaplasmosis, Babesia, Lyme, research, Testing, Ticks

Genes As Biomarkers for Chronic Lyme?

https://www.lymedisease.org/35-genes-biomarkers-lyme/

Could these 35 genes be used as biomarkers for chronic Lyme?

Nov. 15, 2022

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York have identified 35 genes that are particularly highly expressed in people with long-term Lyme disease.

These genes could potentially be used as biomarkers to diagnose patients with the condition, which is otherwise difficult to diagnose and treat.

The findings, published November 15 in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, may also lead to new therapeutic targets.

The study is the first to use transcriptomics as a blood test to measure RNA levels in patients with long-term Lyme disease.

Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness that is not well understood. Approximately 30,000 diagnosed cases are reported to the CDC each year, but the estimated real number is closer to 476,000 cases, carrying an annual healthcare cost of about $1 billion in the United States. While most patients are diagnosed and treated with antibiotics at the earliest stages of Lyme disease, about 20 percent of the patients develop long-term complications, which could include arthritis, neurologic symptoms, and/or heart problems.

“We wanted to understand whether there is a specific immune response that can be detected in the blood of patients with long-term Lyme disease to develop better diagnostics for this debilitating disease. There still remains a critical unmet need, as this disease so often goes undiagnosed or misdiagnosed,” said Avi Ma’ayan, PhD, Professor, Pharmacological Sciences, and Director of the Mount Sinai Center for Bioinformatics at Icahn Mount Sinai, and senior author of the paper. “Not enough is understood about the molecular mechanisms of long-term Lyme disease.”

Image above: Researchers at Icahn Mount Sinai in New York identified 35 genes that could be used as biomarkers to potentially diagnose patients with long-term Lyme disease. Image credit: Cell Reports Medicine

As part of the study, RNA sequencing was conducted using blood samples from 152 patients with symptoms of post-treatment Lyme disease to measure their immune response.

Differences in gene expression

Combined with RNA sequencing data from 72 patients with acute Lyme disease and 44 uninfected controls, the investigators observed differences in gene expression. They found that most of the post-treatment Lyme disease patients had a distinctive inflammatory signature compared with the acute Lyme disease group.

In addition, by analyzing the differentially expressed genes in this study along with genes that are differentially expressed due to other infections from other published studies, the researchers identified a subset of genes that were highly expressed, which have not been previously established for this Lyme-associated inflammatory response.

Using a type of artificial intelligence called machine learning, the researchers further reduced the group of genes to establish an mRNA biomarker set capable of distinguishing healthy patients from those with acute or post-treatment Lyme disease. A gene panel that measures the expression of the genes the investigators identified could be developed as a diagnostic to test for Lyme.

A new diagnostic for Lyme?

“We should not underestimate the value of using omics technologies, including transcriptomics, to measure RNA levels to detect the presence of many complex diseases, like Lyme disease. A diagnostic for Lyme disease may not be a panacea but could represent meaningful progress toward a more reliable diagnosis and, as a result, potentially better management of this disease,” said Dr. Ma’ayan.

Next, the investigators plan to repeat the study using data from single-cell transcriptomics and whole blood, apply the machine learning approach to other complex diseases that are difficult to diagnose, and develop the diagnostic gene panel and test it on samples from patients.

The paper is titled “Gene set predictor for post-treatment Lyme Disease.” Additional co-authors are Daniel J.B. Clarke, MS (Icahn Mount Sinai, New York), and Alison W. Rebman, MPH, Jinshui Fan, MD, PhD, Mark J. Soloski, PhD, and John N. Aucott, MD, all from Johns Hopkins University of Medicine in Baltimore.

The project was partially supported by funds from the Cohen Lyme & Tickborne Disease Initiative and the National Institutes of Health.

SOURCE: MountSinai.org

Category:

Inflammation, Lyme, research, Testing