The Persistent Lyme Disease: "True Chronic Lyme Disease" rather than "Post-treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome"

• Published in: Journal of global infectious diseases Vol. 10; no. 3; pp. 170 - 171
• Main Authors: Lacout, Alexis, El Hajjam, Mostafa, Marcy, Pierre-Yves, Perronne, Christian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: India Wolters Kluwer India Pvt. Ltd 01-07-2018; Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd; Medknow Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd; Medknow Publications & Media Pvt Ltd; Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
• Subjects: Antibiotics; Bacteria; Biofilms; Letters to Editor; Lyme disease; Patients
• ISSN: 0974-777X; 0974-8245
• DOI: 10.4103/jgid.jgid_152_17

Chronic Lyme disease can present as a “post-Lyme syndrome” explained by inflammatory and immunological phenomena, or as a genuine “chronic form” attributable to the persistence of the bacteria despite proper antibiotic therapy as per the current guidelines. In patients presenting with a chronic form, the interferon-gamma response is not followed by an increase in IL-4, thus suggesting both a persistent Th1 response and a deficiency in the Th2 response. [...]Leeflang et al. reported a poor sensitivity of the enzyme immunoassay/immunoblot of 0.77 (95% confidence interval: 0.67–0.85) in the diagnosis of neuroborreliosis.