posted
The following was copied from www.pubmed.gov. I was surprised to see this on a .gov site. Does this mean that they recognise chronic LD?
Decreased CD57 lymphocyte subset in patients with chronic Lyme disease.
Stricker RB, Winger EE. Department of Medicine, California Pacific Medical Center, 450 Sutter Street, Suite 1504, San Francisco, CA 94108, USA. [email protected]
BACKGROUND: Chronic Lyme disease LD is a debilitating illness caused by tickborne infection with the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. Although immunologic abnormalities appear to play a role in this disease, specific immunologic markers of chronic LD have not been identified.
METHODS: We evaluated 73 patients with chronic LD for lymphocyte subset abnormalities using flow cytometry. Of these, 53 patients had predominant musculoskeletal symptoms, while 20 patients had predominant neurologic symptoms. The estimated duration of infection ranged from 3 months to 15 years, and all patients had positive serologic tests for B. burgdorferi. Ten patients with acute LD infection less than 1 month and 22 patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome AIDS served as disease controls.
RESULTS: All 31 chronic LD patients who were tested prior to antibiotic treatment had significantly decreased CD57 lymphocyte counts mean, 30+/-16 cells per microl; normal, 60-360 cells per microl, P<0.001. Nineteen of 37 patients 51% who were tested after initiating antibiotic therapy had decreased CD57 levels mean, 66+/-39 cells per microl, and all five patients tested after completing antibiotic treatment had normal CD57 counts mean, 173+/-98 cells per microl. In contrast, all 10 patients with acute LD and 82% of AIDS patients had normal CD57 levels, and the difference between these groups and the pre-treatment patients with chronic LD was significant P<0.001. Patients with chronic LD and predominant neurologic symptoms had significantly lower mean CD57 levels than patients with predominant musculoskeletal symptoms 30+/-21 vs. 58+/-37 cells per microl, P=0.002. CD57 levels increased in chronic LD patients whose symptoms improved, while patients with refractory disease had persistently low CD57 counts.
CONCLUSIONS: A decrease in the CD57 lymphocyte subset may be an important marker of chronic LD. Changes in the CD57 subset may be useful to monitor the response to therapy in this disease.
PMID: 11222912 PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE
-------------------- 26 months of treatment. And counting....... Posts: 298 | From Northeast Kansas | Registered: Oct 2006
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Foggy
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 1584
posted
Thanks, Any date on this?
Posts: 2451 | From Lyme Central | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I think this goes back at least 5 years.
Posts: 422 | From Herndon, Virginia | Registered: Oct 2005
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TerryK
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 8552
posted
quote: I was surprised to see this on a .gov site. Does this mean that they recognise chronic LD?
The fact that it is listed in pubmed does not mean anything in terms of what the government recognizes as legimate.
pubmed is a database that is sponsored by the National Library of Medicine. None of the information there is approved of one way or the other by the government. It is a collection of data from various journals. This may explain it better. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PubMed
Terry
Posts: 6286 | From Oregon | Registered: Jan 2006
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