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Monday, July 14, 2014

Is it Autism or Lyme?

PubMed:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24986703

Medical Hypotheses:http://www.medical-hypotheses.com/article/S0306-9877(14)00233-3/abstract

 

Med Hypotheses.2014 Jun 16. pii: S0306-9877(14)00233-3. doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2014.06.005. [Epub ahead of print]

 

Divergent opinions of proper Lyme disease diagnosis and implications for children co-morbid with autism spectrum disorder.

 

Kuhn M (1), Bransfield R(2).

 

Author information:

(1)University of Northern Iowa, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, 1227 W

27th St, Cedar Falls, IA 50614, USA. Electronic address:MasonKuhn@hotmail.com.

(2)Robert Wood Johnson University of Medicine and Dentistry Medical School,

Education and Research Building,401 Haddon Avenue, Camden, NJ 08103, USA.

Electronic address:bransfield@comcast.net.

 

This paper proposes that some children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in the United States have undiagnosed Lyme disease and different testing criteria used by commercial laboratories may be producing false negative results. Two testing protocols will be evaluated; first, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)and Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) approved two-tiered Enzyme Immunoassay (EIA) or Immunofluorescence Assay (IFA) followed by an IgM and/or IgG Western Blot test. Second, a clinical diagnosis (flu like symptoms, joint pain, fatigue, neurological symptoms, etc.) possibly followed by a Western Blot with a broader criteria for positive bands [1]. The hypothesis proposes that the former criteria may be producing false negative results for some individuals diagnosed with an ASD. Through an online survey parents of 48 children who have a diagnosis of an ASD and have been diagnosed with Lyme disease were asked to fill out the Autism Treatment Evaluation Checklist (ATEC) before they started antibiotic therapy and after treatment. Of the 48 parents surveyed 45 of them (94%) indicated their child initially tested negative using the two-tiered CDC/IDSA approved test. The parents sought a second physician who diagnosed their child with Lyme disease using the wider range of Western Blot bands. The children were treated with antibiotics and their scores on the ATEC improved. Anecdotal data indicated that some of the children achieved previously unattained developmental milestones after antibiotic therapy began. Protein bands OSP-A and/or OSP-B(Western Blot band 31) and (Western Blot band 34) were found in 44 of 48 patients. These two bands are so specific to Borrelia burgdorferi that they were targeted for use in vaccine trials, yet are not included in the IDSA interpretation of the Western Blot.

 

Copyright © 2014.Published by Elsevier Ltd.

 

PMID: 24986703 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

 


 

1 comment:

  1. "Some samples from normal or syphilitic groups recognized the 31 or 34kda band, but it seems that the 2 protein bands did not usually show up in tandem except in some patients with the late stage of lyme borreliosis. Although the detection of antibodies against the 31 and 34 kda proteins may not be crucial for thediagnosis in terms of sensitivity, these 2 proteins are very specific markers of late lyme borreliosis when they are both present". Journal of clinical microbiology feb 92. Serodiagnosis of lyme borreliosis by westrrn immunoblot

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