This is an automatically translated article.
Lyme disease is a disease caused by bacteria from animals to humans, causing damage in some parts such as skin, nerves, heart... To help diagnose Lyme disease most accurately, the Lyme disease testing is an indispensable part, having very high diagnostic value.
1. What is Lyme disease?
Lyme disease in humans is an infectious disease, caused by a spirochete with the scientific name Borrelia Burgdorferi transmitted from the animal body to the human body with the route of transmission being mostly by ticks and insect bites. When infected with this type of bacteria, the body will appear damage to the nervous system, cardiovascular organs, joints and skin. In terms of epidemiology, the disease usually occurs in central Europe, more recently in the US state of Connecticut. The disease appears at all ages and is most common in June to October of the year or sometimes appears in all months of the year.
Signs of Lyme disease vary through each stage of lyme disease as follows:
Stage 1: After a few weeks to a few months of bacterial infection, a migratory erythema appears, which is a type of centrifugal rash, which can move transferable. The appearance of the rash can be regular, ring-shaped and usually disappears spontaneously after a few weeks or months. The rash may also be hemorrhagic, not migratory. In addition, at this stage, the patient also has signs of influenza and the cerebrospinal fluid is often inflamed. Stage 2: Meningitis - nerve roots begin to appear, there may be cranial neuritis, neuritis, simple neuritis, encephalitis, cerebrovascular inflammation... Signs The most prominent sign in this stage is neurogenic Bannwarth syndrome, which is a condition in which cerebrospinal fluid lymphocytes are increased and nerve roots are damaged causing pain sensation. Regarding the cardiovascular system, there is atrioventricular block, arrhythmia, myocarditis, pericarditis, heart failure... Some other lesions such as skin lymphoma, arthralgia, myalgia, ophthalmitis, iritis eyes, choroiditis, optic neuritis, pancreatitis, large liver, hepatitis, dry cough, swollen testicles... Stage 3: This is the late stage, appearing after bacteria invade body for a few months to a few years. The most typical signs in this stage are damage to one or more joints, chronic atrophic dermatitis, atrophy and wrinkling of the skin, chronic encephalitis, encephalitis...
Bệnh Lyme gây viêm màng não
2. Lyme disease testing
Lyme disease test is a test that detects antibodies to the spirochete Borrelia Burgdorferi in the blood of an infected person. Types of Lyme disease tests often have a very high diagnostic value because for patients who have been infected with pathogenic bacteria, some cases often have no clinical symptoms, so performing these tests Lyme disease testing is extremely necessary and effective in diagnosing and choosing the right treatment.
Some types of Lyme disease tests include:
Antibody test : The most common type of test, done by taking a sample of spinal fluid or joint fluid. This test is only valid after 2 months of infection because the process of antibody formation is quite long, it persists for many years and sometimes even after treatment. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA): A type of test that helps identify antibodies to pathogenic bacteria quickly. It is also the most sensitive test for diagnosing Lym disease in humans. Western blot test: A test that helps identify Lyme disease antibodies and is used to confirm the results of a previously performed ELISA test, having high value in diagnosing chronic Lyme disease. PCR test: is a polymerase chain reaction test of Lyme disease bacteria, capable of finding an active infection when the patient still has symptoms after being treated with antibiotics.
Xét nghiệm PCR
Indications to perform tests for Lyme disease are as follows:
People appear erythematous spreading around, pale center, aka bull's eye rash Body a lot of fatigue Fever Headache, stiff neck Pain muscles and joints Chronic infection symptoms such as joint pain, stiffness, signs of heart disease, brain, nerve damage.
Người bệnh cảm thấy nhức đầu
3. Meaning of Lyme Disease Testing
Normally, for patients who are not infected with Lyme disease bacteria, after performing Lyme disease tests, they will not find antibodies to the pathogenic bacteria, or if doing PCR, they will not see them. DNA of pathogenic bacteria when performing analysis.
In case the patient has abnormalities that make us suspect that there is a possibility of infection with bacteria that cause Lyme disease, after the test will find antibodies to this bacterium, the PCR reaction will also find the DNA of the virus. pathogenic bacteria.
Xét nghiệm bệnh Lyme được thực hiện tại bệnh viện uy tín
Besides, if the test result is normal, there will still be a case of false negative, that is, infected with Lyme disease bacteria but not shown on the test results. These cases are common with PCR test because the body has not yet made antibodies against pathogenic bacteria and the infection time is short, so antibodies have not been found. The cause of false negatives can also be because the antibody level in the blood sample is too low, or the patient is not properly treated at the beginning of the infection, so antibodies to the bacteria cannot be found when doing the test. Lyme disease.
Similarly, there will also be false positives because the test finds antibodies to some other bacteria such as syphilis or viruses, or it is an autoimmune reaction of the body in some autoimmune diseases. immune system such as rheumatoid arthritis , lupus erythematosus ...
Lyme disease test is one of the highly valuable tests in diagnosing and finding Lyme disease. However, the test results can also be affected by a number of factors such as other bacterial infections, blood lipid levels, blood antibody levels... so patients need to seek medical care facilities that can High expertise as well as prestige to perform and analyze test results in the most accurate way.
Customers can directly go to Vinmec Health system nationwide to visit or contact the hotline here for support.
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