title: A study of the technique of western blot for diagnosis of lyme disease caused by Borrelia afzelii in China.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the technique of Western blot for the diagnosis of Lyme disease caused by Borrelia afzelii in China and to establish the standard criteria by operational procedure.
  
  
  METHODS
  FP1, which is the representative strain of B. afzelii in China, was analyzed by SDS-PAGE, electro transfer and immunoblotting assays. The molecular weights of the protein bands of FP1 were analyzed by Gel-Pro analysis software. In a study using 451 serum samples (159 patients with Lyme disease and 292 controls), all observed bands were recorded. The accuracy of the WB as a diagnostic test was established by using the ROC curve and Youden index.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Criteria for a positive diagnosis of Lyme disease were established as at least one band of P83/100, P58, P39, OspB, OspA, P30, P28, OspC, P17, and P14 in the IgG test and at least one band of P83/100, P58, P39, OspA, P30, P28, OspC, P17, and P41 in the IgM test. For IgG criteria, the sensitivity, specificity and Youden index were 69.8%, 98.3%, and 0.681, respectively; for IgM criteria, the sensitivity, specificity and Youden index were 47%, 94.2%, and 0.412, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Establishment of WB criteria for B. afzelii is important in validating the diagnostic assays for Lyme disease in China.
authors: State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 102206, China.
authors: Zhi Yun
authors: ZY
authors: Liu
authors: Qin
authors: Q
authors: Hao
authors: Xue Xia
authors: XX
authors: Hou
authors: Yi
authors: Y
authors: Jiang
authors: Zhen
authors: Z
authors: Geng
authors: Yi Mou
authors: YM
authors: Wu
authors: Kang Lin
authors: KL
authors: Wan
mesh_terms: D015153:Blotting, Western / Q000379:methods*; D015748:Borrelia burgdorferi Group / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D002681:China; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D006801:Humans; D008193:Lyme Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology*
keywords: Borrelia afzelii; Diagnostic method; Lyme disease; Western blot