This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Callister, S. M.
Right arrow Articles by Marks, J. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Callister, S. M.
Right arrow Articles by Marks, J. A.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, July 2002, p. 908-912, Vol. 9, No. 4
1071-412X/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.9.4.908-912.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Ability of the Borreliacidal Antibody Test To Confirm Lyme Disease in Clinical Practice

Steven M. Callister,1,2,3* Dean A. Jobe,1,3 William A. Agger,2,3 Ronald F. Schell,4,5 Todd J. Kowalski,3 Steven D. Lovrich,1,3 and Jennifer A. Marks1,3

Microbiology Research Laboratory,1 Section of Infectious Diseases,2 Gundersen Lutheran Medical Foundation, Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, La Crosse, Wisconsin 54601,3 Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene,4 Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 537065

Received 22 January 2002/ Returned for modification 7 March 2002/ Accepted 25 March 2002

Highly specific borreliacidal antibodies are induced by infection with Borrelia burgdorferi, and a borreliacidal antibody test (BAT) may be an accurate laboratory procedure for confirming Lyme disease in clinical practice. To investigate this, 34 Lyme disease sera and 34 sera from patients with other illnesses who had presented to a primary-care facility located in an area of borreliosis endemicity were tested by the BAT and Western blotting (WB). The BAT was more sensitive (79% versus 65%; P = 0.090), especially in cases in which patients had a single erythema migrans lesion (P = 0.021). In addition, the potentially cross-reactive sera were negative by the BAT but WB yielded three (9%) false-positive results. The results from 104 sera from possible Lyme disease patients demonstrated the clinical usefulness of the more sensitive and specific BAT. The BAT was positive for 40 (38%) sera from patients with Lyme disease-related symptoms and appropriate clinical and epidemiological findings. WB confirmed Lyme disease in 30 (75%) of the 40 BAT-positive patients but failed to detect B. burgdorferi infection in 10 BAT-positive patients. WB was also positive for 11 BAT-negative sera, but six (55%) patients had case histories which suggested that the results were false positives. Collectively, the results confirm that the BAT is a sensitive and highly specific test and suggest that widespread use would increase the accuracy of serodiagnostic confirmation of Lyme disease.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Microbiology Research Laboratory, Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center, 836 South Ave., La Crosse, Wisconsin 54601. Phone: (608) 782-7300, ext. 2042. Fax: (608) 791-6602. E-mail: Scallist{at}gundluth.org.

Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology, July 2002, p. 908-912, Vol. 9, No. 4
1071-412X/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/CDLI.9.4.908-912.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Aguero-Rosenfeld, M. E., Wang, G., Schwartz, I., Wormser, G. P. (2005). Diagnosis of Lyme Borreliosis. Clin. Microbiol. Rev. 18: 484-509 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Lovrich, S. D., Jobe, D. A., Schell, R. F., Callister, S. M. (2005). Borreliacidal OspC Antibodies Specific for a Highly Conserved Epitope Are Immunodominant in Human Lyme Disease and Do Not Occur in Mice or Hamsters. CVI 12: 746-751 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Jobe, D. A., Lovrich, S. D., Schell, R. F., Callister, S. M. (2003). C-Terminal Region of Outer Surface Protein C Binds Borreliacidal Antibodies in Sera from Patients with Lyme Disease. CVI 10: 573-578 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»