[Positive serology for Borrelia burgdorferi in patients with symptoms compatible with Lyme's disease].
The existence of Lyme's disease (LD) in Spain has been demonstrated for several years, but the impact that LD may have on the presence of symptomatology associated to this entity has not been evaluated so far in our region. Given the existence of serological false positives and negatives, the usefulness of positive serology as indicative of LD is discussed. In this work, we try to demonstrate the presence of a greater serological positivity for anti-Bb antibodies in patients with clinical signs compatible with Lyme's disease, in order to assess in our environment if positivity of the serological tests used is indicative of infection by Bb.


METHODS
In the Health Center of Pino Montano, we studied a total of 100 patients which could have been in contact with ticks or which presented symptomatology compatible with Lyme's Borreliosis, no other explantation being plausible. Determinations were made using indirect immunofluorescence (IIF) at different dilutions and three commercial ELISA methods in each serum.


RESULTS
Seropositivity for IIF at a dilution 1/128 was of 24%, similar to the one obtained with 3 different ELISA methods. This results were confirmed for each of the risk factors considered. Fever from unknown etiology was present in 33% of the cases and was associated to a higher risk of positive serology. When two systems were affected (probable LD), seropositivity was more frequent than when just one system was affected (possible LD). Advanced age in the study population was not associated to a greater risk of positive serology, the opposite of what happened in the control population.


CONCLUSIONS
The presence of anti-Bb antibodies in a risk population (probable or possible LD) is 24%, much greater than in the control population. Techniques for anti-Bb antibodies detection using ELISA methods show a significant correlation between each other and with IIF at a dilution of 1/128.
Barranquero
A
A
Centro de Salud Polígono Sur Sevilla.
Borobio
M V
MV
Sifontes
O
O
Martínez-Manzanares
C
C
Izquierdo
G
G
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012698:Serologic Tests
Serología positiva para Borrelia burgdorferi en personas con sintomatología compatible con la enfermedad de Lyme.