Comparison of erythema migrans caused by Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii.
BACKGROUND
We compared epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with erythema migrans (EM) caused by Borrelia afzelii and Borrelia garinii.


METHODS
200 consecutive adult patients with B. afzelii isolated from the skin lesion and 53 consecutive adult patients with EM caused by B. garinii qualified for the present study.


RESULTS
Comparison of the two groups revealed several distinctions. Patients with EM caused by B. garinii were older, had their skin lesions more often located on the trunk but less often on extremities, had shorter incubation and faster evolution of EM, more often reported associated local and certain systemic symptoms, had abnormal liver function test results more often and were more frequently seropositive.


CONCLUSIONS
Early localized Lyme borreliosis caused by B. afzelii and B. garinii has distinct epidemiological and clinical characteristics. Clinical features of EM depend upon the genospecies of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato causing the illness.
Dept. of Infectious Diseases, University Medical Centre, Japljeva 2, SLO-1525, Ljubljana, Slovenia. mateja.logar@mf.uni-lj.si
M
M
Logar
E
E
Ruzić-Sabljić
V
V
Maraspin
S
S
Lotric-Furlan
J
J
Cimperman
T
T
Jurca
F
F
Strle
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015748:Borrelia burgdorferi Group / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015787:Erythema Chronicum Migrans / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D017678:Sex Distribution; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric