title: A decline in C6 antibody titer occurs in successfully treated patients with culture-confirmed early localized or early disseminated Lyme Borreliosis.
abstract: C(6), a Borrelia burgdorferi-derived peptide, is used as the antigen in the C(6)-Lyme disease diagnostic test. We assessed retrospectively whether a fourfold decrease or a decrease to a negative value in anti-C(6) antibody titer is positively correlated with a positive response to treatment in a sample of culture-confirmed patients with either early localized (single erythema migrans [EM]; n=93) or early disseminated (multiple EM; n=27) disease. All of these patients had been treated with antibiotics and were free of disease within 6 to 12 months of follow-up. Results show that a serum specimen taken at this time was either C(6) negative or had a >or=4-fold decrease in C(6) antibody titer with respect to a specimen taken at baseline (or during the early convalescent period if the baseline specimen was C(6) negative) for all of the multiple-EM patients (P<0.0001) and in 89% of the single-EM patients (P<0.0001). These results indicate that a decline in anti-C(6) antibody titer coincides with effective antimicrobial therapy in patients with early localized or early disseminated Lyme borreliosis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology and Parasitology, Tulane National Primate Research Center, Tulane University Health Sciences Center, Covington, LA 70433, USA. Philipp@tpc.tulane.edu
authors.forename: Mario T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Philipp
authors.forename: Gary P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Wormser
authors.forename: Adriana R
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: Marques
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bittker
authors.forename: Dale S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nowakowski
authors.forename: Leonard G
authors.initials: LG
authors.lastname: Dally
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial / Q000097:blood*; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D025065:Borrelia burgdorferi / Q000276:immunology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D000907:Antibodies, Bacterial