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Chronic neurologic manifestations of Lyme disease Article Abstract:
Lyme disease results from infection with the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi, a spirochete that is carried by ticks.
Neurologic complications are common in Lyme borreliosis; many patients have headaches and mild meningism, and about 15 percent develop neurologic abnormalities, such as facial palsy or lymphocytic meningitis.
Most of these neurologic complications resolve within a few months, even without antibiotic treatment. Unfortunately, a few patients develop chronic neurologic manifestations; to gain further knowledge of this problem, 27 patients with chronic neurologic complications of Lyme disease were evaluated.
The emerging picture bears some resemblance to neurosyphilis, which results from another, and perhaps more widely known, spirochete (Treponema pallidum).
The most common form of central nervous system involvement, seen in 24 of the 27 patients, was subacute encephalopathy, which results in mood changes, sleep disturbances, and memory problems.
As in neurosyphilis, this encephalopathy can occur after a long latent period; in one patient the original symptoms of Lyme disease preceded the encephalopathy by 14 years. The precise pathological basis for these symptoms is not yet known, but spirochetes were tentatively identified in brain biopsies of two patients.
Polyneuropathy, which affected 19 patients, is another chronic neurologic complication of Lyme borreliosis. It involves abnormalities of peripheral nerves and symptoms may include tingling, burning, spasms, or shooting pains. In seven patients, polyneuropathy was limited to a ''pins and needles'' sort of tingling sensation.
Other less specific symptoms observed among these patients included headaches and marked fatigue.
Also, comparable to neurosyphilis is the disease's poor susceptibility to antibiotics, which was far less than had been hoped.
All patients were treated with intravenous ceftriaxone for two weeks.
Recovery was rarely complete, and only 17 patients (63 percent) showed improvement when evaluated six months after treatment.
Four patients had not improved while six had improved and then relapsed at the end of the six-month follow-up period. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
author: Steere, Allen C., Logigian, Eric L., Kaplan, Ricahrd F. Publisher: Massachusetts Medical Society Publication Name: The New England Journal of Medicine Subject: Health ISSN: 0028-4793 Year: 1990
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After this he saw the light and realized these people had post-lyme syndrome, and no more spirochetes. The ones seen at autopsy must have been mirages.
A number of the lyme deniers have a past that includes telling the truth about the disease. But they are so brazen, it doesn't bother them or the IDSA or the NIH, CDC that they lie their heads off now, even when there is published evidence from the past to confront them with.
Steere has actually publicly complained about being persecuted by lyme patients. Those are the ones that were pointing out his past statements conflicted with his later statements. That's real persecution, isn't it?
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Vermont_Lymie
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The hypocrisy of the IDSA 'scientists' knows no bounds, and that is one of the nicer things you can say about them.
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Tincup
Honored Contributor (10K+ posts)
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YO! ChuckG....
Are you the new welcoming committee around here? Or did you just sit on another tack tonight?
Thanks for posting the abstract carl. I always like to see the stuff they wrote back then and be reminded what it was like in the good old days... before the Lyme vaccine was due to be released.
They had to prove there was a need for it and it shows in their flip flop to "oh MY goodness, Lyme is awful"...
To "Lyme is no big deal" after their cash cow didn't come home and they were being sued.
And lou is right. If anyone tries to hold their feet to the fire... they deny, deny, deny.
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