Serologic Tests for Lyme Disease Yield Disparate Results

When serum samples were tested for anti-Borrelia antibodies using eight commercially available ELISAs and five immunoblot assays, intertest agreement was only modest.

Current guidelines for diagnosing Lyme disease include a two-tier testing algorithm: an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detecting anti-Borrelia antibodies, followed by immunoblot confirmation of positive ELISA results. Commercially available tests are based on sonicated whole-cell Borrelia antigens, recombinant antigens, or a mixture of the two.

To compare the performance of these assays, researchers in the Netherlands tested serum samples for anti-Borrelia antibodies using eight commercial ELISAs and five immunoblots (4 commercial, 1 investigator-made). The 89 samples were from 59 patients with suspected Lyme disease, 14 healthy controls, and 16 patients with syphilis or Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection — conditions associated …

Reviewing Author

Thomas Glück, MD

Disclosures

Editorial BoardsConsilium Infectiorum by InfectoPharm, Infection

Thomas Glück, MD

Disclosures

Editorial BoardsConsilium Infectiorum by InfectoPharm, Infection