title: Improving the yield of blood cultures from patients with early Lyme disease.
abstract: Approximately 45% of untreated United States patients with early Lyme disease associated with erythema migrans have a positive blood culture based on microscopic detection of Borrelia burgdorferi in Barbour-Stoenner-Kelly medium after 2 to 12 weeks of incubation. In this study we demonstrate that the yield of blood cultures can be significantly increased to 70.8% by the use of a combined culture-quantitative PCR technique and that among those patients found to have a positive blood culture, positivity was detected in over 90% within just 7 days of incubation. Patients with multiple erythema migrans were almost uniformly culture positive by this technique.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Division of Infectious Diseases, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York 10595, USA.
authors.forename: Dionysios
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Liveris
authors.forename: Ira
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bittker
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: Radha
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Iyer
authors.forename: Mary E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Cox
authors.forename: Gary P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Wormser
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D001769:Blood / Q000382:microbiology*; D025065:Borrelia burgdorferi / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D014481:United States