You are seeing this message because your Web browser does not support basic Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing and what you can do to make your experience on this site better.


Advertisement

ABOUT ARCHIVES
Advanced Search

Welcome   | My Account | E-mail Alerts | RSS | Access Rights | Sign In


  Vol. 47 No. 5, May 1990 TABLE OF CONTENTS
  Online Only
 •  Online First Table of
Contents
  ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS
 •Online Features
 This Article
 •References
 •Full text PDF
 • Reply to article
 •Send to a friend
 • Save in My Folder
 •Save to citation manager
 •Permissions
 Citing Articles
 •Citation map
 •Citing articles on HighWire
 •Citing articles on Web of Science (38)
 •Contact me when this article is cited
 Related Content
 •Similar articles in this journal
 Social Bookmarking
  Add to CiteULike Add to Connotea Add to Delicious Add to Digg Add to Facebook Add to Reddit Add to Technorati Add to Twitter What's this?

Immunologic Reactivity Against Borrelia burgdorferi in Patients With Motor Neuron Disease

John J. Halperin, MD; Gary P. Kaplan, MD, PhD; Shari Brazinsky, MD; T. F. Tsai, MD; Teresa Cheng; Audrey Ironside, RPT; Priscilla Wu, MA; Joel Delfiner, MD; Marc Golightly, PhD; Robert H. Brown, MD; Raymond J. Dattwyler, MD; Benjamin J. Luft, MD

Arch Neurol. 1990;47(5):586-594.


Abstract



• Of 19 unselected patients with the diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) living in Suffolk County, New York (an area of high Lyme disease prevalence), 9 had serologic evidence of exposure to Borrelia burgdorferi; 4 of 38 matched controls were seropositive. Eight of 9 sero-positive patients were male (8 of 12 male patients vs 2 of 24 controls). Rates of seropositivity were lower among patients with ALS from nonendemic areas. All patients had typical ALS; none had typical Lyme disease. Cerebrospinal fluid was examined in 24 ALS patients—3 (all with severe bulbar involvement) appeared to have intrathecal synthesis of anti-B burgdorferi antibody. Following therapy with antibiotics, 3 patients with predominantly lower motor neuron abnormalities appeared to improve, 3 with severe bulbar dysfunction deteriorated rapidly, and all others appeared unaffected. There appears to be a statistically significant association between ALS and immunoreactivity to B burgdorferi, at least among men living in hyperendemic areas.



Author Affiliations



From the Departments of Neurology (Drs Halperin, Kaplan, Brazinsky, and Delfiner and Mss Cheng and Wu), Pathology (Dr Golightly), Internal Medicine (Drs Dattwyler and Luft), and Physical Therapy (Ms Ironside), State University of New York, Stony Brook; Centers for Disease Control, Fort Collins, Colo (Dr Tsai); Department of Neurology, Nassau County Medical Center, East Meadow, NY (Dr Delfiner); and Department of Neurology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston (Dr Brown).


Footnotes



Accepted for publication September 29, 1989.

Reprint requests to Department of Neurology, HSC T12-020, State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY 11794 (Dr Halperin).



Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Delicious Delicious   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Facebook Facebook   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Chapter 23 The motor neurone disorders
Shaw
Brain's Diseases of the Nervous System 2009;12:med-9780198569381-chapter-med-9780198569381-chapter.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Relevance of the antibody index to diagnose Lyme neuroborreliosis among seropositive patients
Blanc et al.
Neurology 2007;69:953-958.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Failure to detect enterovirus in the spinal cord of ALS patients using a sensitive RT-PCR method
Nix et al.
Neurology 2004;62:1372-1377.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Generalised motor neuron disease as an unusual manifestation of Borrelia burgdorferi infection
HEMMER et al.
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 1997;63:257-258.
FULL TEXT  

Nervous System Lyme Borreliosis--Revisited
Finkel and Halperin
Arch Neurol 1992;49:102-107.
ABSTRACT  





HOME | CURRENT ISSUE | PAST ISSUES | TOPIC COLLECTIONS | CME | PHYSICIAN JOBS | SUBMIT | SUBSCRIBE | HELP
CONDITIONS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY | CONTACT US | SITE MAP
 
© 1990 American Medical Association. All Rights Reserved.