Assessment Of Patients With Lyme Infection

莱姆病是由伯氏疏螺旋体感染引起的一种多系统疾病，是美国主要的媒介传播疾病。莱姆病在欧洲也很常见，在俄罗斯、中国和日本也有发生。在人类中，伯氏杆菌感染主要导致皮肤、神经系统、心脏和关节的感染。莱姆病通常可以用抗生素治疗成功，早期疾病的患者效果最好。不幸的是，一些患者可能对治疗没有完全的反应。我们目前有三个临床方案研究莱姆病患者。两个方案是自然历史研究，并作为多条调查路线的基础。一种方案针对治疗后莱姆病综合征患者。另一种方案允许对典型莱姆病患者进行研究。第三个方案将使用微阵列检查红斑移行性皮损患者的皮肤活检中的宿主反应。我们的工作涉及莱姆病的三个方面：实验室诊断、临床表现和对伯氏杆菌的免疫反应。

Lyme disease is a multisystem illness caused by infection with the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi and it is the leading vector-borne disease in the United States. Lyme disease is also common in Europe and also occurs in Russia, China and Japan. In humans, B. burgdorferi infection causes infection primarily in the skin, nervous system, heart and joints. Lyme disease can usually be treated successfully with antibiotic therapy, with the best results seen in patients with early disease. Unfortunately, some patients may not have a complete response to therapy. We currently have three clinical protocols studying patients with Lyme disease. Two protocols are natural history studies and serve as the basis for multiple lines of investigation. One protocols addresses patients with post treatment Lyme disease syndrome. The other protocol allow for the study of patients with classical Lyme disease. A third protocol will examine the host reponse in skin biopsies from patients with erythema migrans lesions using microarrays. Our work addresses 3 areas in Lyme disease: laboratory diagnosis, clinical manifestations and immunological responses to B. burgdorferi.