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Diagnosing central nervous system (CNS) Lyme disease — Lyme neuroborreliosis — is difficult. Currently, the most definitive test involves comparing the concentrations of Borrelia burgdorferi–specific antibodies in concurrent cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and serum samples. European investigators recently observed that CSF concentrations of a B-cell attractant chemokine, CXCL13, appeared to be elevated in patients with Lyme neuroborreliosis. Now, researchers have prospectively assessed the usefulness of CSF CXCL13 levels in diagnosing this condition. (One of the researchers has a patent pending on a related rapid test.)
The study involved 192 patients at a Munich, Germany, hospital who had CSF and serum samples submitted for B. burgdorferi–specif…