Long-Term Outcomes of Persons With Lyme Disease
Seltzer EG, Gerber MA, Cartter ML, Freudigman K, Shapiro ED
JAMA. 2000;283:609-616
Lyme disease is a systemic, tick-borne disease (the most common vector-borne illness in the United States) with protean manifestations, including dermatologic, rheumatologic, neurologic, and cardiac abnormalities. The best clinical marker for the disease is the initial skin lesion, erythema migrans, that occurs in 60% to 80% of patients.1 The diagnosis is based on a characteristic clinical picture in the appropriate epidemiological setting. The specificity of available serologic tests is low. Disparate opinions have been generated about the long-term consequences of infection with Borrelia burgdorferi, the spirochete that is the causative infectious agent: many authors believe that Lyme disease is difficult to treat, and a post–Lyme syndrome has been described in a case-control study with a small and particularly selected sample.2 The aim of this community-based retrospective cohort study was to assess the long-term outcomes of patients with Lyme disease.