title: Determination of antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi in the serum of patients living in Calabria, southern Italy.
abstract: The aim of our work was to determine the sero-prevalence of antibodies to B. burgdorferi in 300 patients living in Calabria, a region of southern Italy. The research of antibodies to B. burgdorferi was conducted by ELISA as a screening method and Western Blot as a confirmatory test. Out of the 300 patients we found a rate of positivity of 7.3% with ELISA and 4.5% with Western Blot. This data allows us to classify Calabria, among the regions where Lyme borreliosis is non-endemic and where sero-epidemiological research has been carried out on patients, as having a degree of positivity second to that of Campania (9.1%) and higher than Lombardy (3.2%) and Umbria (2.8%). Considering all the demographic and clinical data, only that of the higher IgG positivity of males over females is statistically significant.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology, La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Santino
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dastoli
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lavorino
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Navazio
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nicosia
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Oliveti
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Oliveti
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pustorino
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sessa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Del Piano
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000906:Antibodies / Q000097:blood*; D015748:Borrelia burgdorferi Group / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000276:immunology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies
chemical_list: D000906:Antibodies