Lyme Disease is now reaching epidemic numbers. I am not an Infectious Disease physician, but a cardiologist. I did some ID training. In the last 5 years I am seeing one to two Lyme patients every day. More than One in 10 individuals successfully treated with antibiotics go on to develop chronic fatigue and brain fog that may last for years after initial infection. This is documented yet some conventional ID doctors do not believe in chronic Lyme A small study at John Hopkins showed elevation of a chemical marker of widespread inflammation in 12 patients treated initially for Lyme. The diagnosis is now PTLDS ( post treatment Lyme disease syndrome ) The protein studied is called translocator protein ( TSPO) which is released by two types of brain cells. If TSPO is high it indicates brain inflammation.
There is also another marker for inflammation called chemokine CCL19. This has been seen in PTLDS patients. The problem is that we do not know where the inflammation is if this marker is present.
Brain scans are not being studied in patients treated and not treated for Lyme. The scans of these PTLDS patients are being studied. More needs to be done with more than 300,000 new Lyme patients being diagnosed every year in the USA
Until tomorrow…