Time to Diagnosis and Treatment of Lyme Disease by Patient Race.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Starke SJ
PROVIDER: S-EPMC10716730 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Time to Diagnosis and Treatment of Lyme Disease by Patient Race.
Starke Samuel J SJ Rebman Alison W AW Miller John J Yang Ting T Aucott John N JN
JAMA network open 20231201 12
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Project description:Recently, disulfiram has been proposed as a promising treatment for people suffering from persistent symptoms of Lyme Disease. Disulfiram has several distinct molecular targets. The most well-known is alcohol dehydrogenase, a key enzyme for detoxifying the organism after alcohol ingestion. Other targets and modes of action of disulfiram, that may present problematic side effects, are less commonly mentioned. The French Federation against Tick Borne Diseases (French acronym, FFMVT), which associates three main Lyme patient organizations, MDs and PhDs, has recently been alerted to severe and persistent toxic events in a patient suffering from a late disseminated form of Lyme Disease following disulfiram intake. FFMVT reacted by launching a national call to examine whether other patients in France following a similar treatment could be identified, and what benefits, or side effects could be reported. The statements of 16 patients taking disulfiram have been collected and are presented here. Thirteen out of 16 patients reported toxic events, and seven out of 16 reported benefits for at least part of their symptoms. Based on the collected observations, it seems too early to promote disulfiram as a promising new treatment until the reasons underlying the reported toxicities have been explored, and the results of a well-conducted double blind clinical trial published. The importance of taking into account patient-reported outcomes in Lyme Disease is underlined by the present study.
| S-EPMC7184924 | biostudies-literature
Project description:OBJECTIVE:For many individuals with Lyme disease, prompt treatment leads to rapid resolution of infection. However, severe complications can occur if treatment is delayed. Our objective was to identify themes around belated diagnosis or treatment of Lyme disease using the General Model of Total Patient Delay (GMTPD). DESIGN:We conducted a qualitative interview study using indepth telephone interviews. SETTING:Participants were patients from a large, integrated health system in the state of Pennsylvania, USA. PARTICIPANTS:There were 26 participants. Participants had to have a diagnosis of Lyme disease between 2014 and 2017 and a positive IgG western blot. We used a stratified purposeful sampling design to identify patients with and without late Lyme disease manifestations. To ensure variation in care experiences, we oversampled patients diagnosed outside of primary care. OUTCOME MEASURES:We asked participants about their experience from first Lyme disease symptoms to treatment. We applied an iterative coding process to identify key themes and then synthesised codes into higher order codes representing the GMTPD stages: appraisal delay (symptom to recognition of illness); illness delay (inferring illness to deciding to seek help); behavioural delay (deciding to seek help to the act of seeking help); scheduling delay (seeking help to attending an appointment); and treatment delay (attending appointment to treatment). RESULTS:Appraisal delay themes included symptom misattribution, intermittent symptoms and misperceptions about the necessity of a bull's-eye rash. Health insurance status was a driver of illness and behavioural delays. Scheduling delay was not noted by participants, in part, because 10 of the 26 patients went to urgent care or emergency department settings. Misdiagnoses were more common in these settings, contributing to treatment delay. CONCLUSION:Our study identified potentially modifiable risk factors for belated treatment. Targeting these risk factors may minimise time to treatment and reduce the occurrence of preventable complications.
| S-EPMC6009554 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ImportanceLyme disease, human granulocytic anaplasmosis (HGA), and babesiosis are emerging tick-borne infections.ObjectiveTo provide an update on diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of tick-borne infections.Evidence reviewSearch of PubMed and Scopus for articles on diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of tick-borne infections published in English from January 2005 through December 2015.FindingsThe search yielded 3550 articles for diagnosis and treatment and 752 articles for prevention. Of these articles, 361 were reviewed in depth. Evidence supports the use of US Food and Drug Administration-approved serologic tests, such as an enzyme immunoassay (EIA), followed by Western blot testing, to diagnose extracutaneous manifestations of Lyme disease. Microscopy and polymerase chain reaction assay of blood specimens are used to diagnose active HGA and babesiosis. The efficacy of oral doxycycline, amoxicillin, and cefuroxime axetil for treating Lyme disease has been established in multiple trials. Ceftriaxone is recommended when parenteral antibiotic therapy is recommended. Multiple trials have shown efficacy for a 10-day course of oral doxycycline for treatment of erythema migrans and for a 14-day course for treatment of early neurologic Lyme disease in ambulatory patients. Evidence indicates that a 10-day course of oral doxycycline is effective for HGA and that a 7- to 10-day course of azithromycin plus atovaquone is effective for mild babesiosis. Based on multiple case reports, a 7- to 10-day course of clindamycin plus quinine is often used to treat severe babesiosis. A recent study supports a minimum of 6 weeks of antibiotics for highly immunocompromised patients with babesiosis, with no parasites detected on blood smear for at least the final 2 weeks of treatment.Conclusions and relevanceEvidence is evolving regarding the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of Lyme disease, HGA, and babesiosis. Recent evidence supports treating patients with erythema migrans for no longer than 10 days when doxycycline is used and prescription of a 14-day course of oral doxycycline for early neurologic Lyme disease in ambulatory patients. The duration of antimicrobial therapy for babesiosis in severely immunocompromised patients should be extended to 6 weeks or longer.
| S-EPMC7758915 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Lyme borreliosis is the most common tick-borne infectious disease in Europe. A neurological manifestation occurs in 3-15% of infections and can manifest as polyradiculitis, meningitis and (rarely) encephalomyelitis. This S3 guideline is directed at physicians in private practices and clinics who treat Lyme neuroborreliosis in children and adults. Twenty AWMF member societies, the Robert Koch Institute, the German Borreliosis Society and three patient organisations participated in its development. A systematic review and assessment of the literature was conducted by the German Cochrane Centre, Freiburg (Cochrane Germany). The main objectives of this guideline are to define the disease and to give recommendations for the confirmation of a clinically suspected diagnosis by laboratory testing, antibiotic therapy, differential diagnostic testing and prevention.
| S-EPMC7174852 | biostudies-literature
Project description:It has long been observed in clinical practice that a subset of patients with Lyme disease report a constellation of symptoms such as fatigue, cognitive difficulties, and musculoskeletal pain, which may last for a significant period of time. These symptoms, which can range from mild to severe, have been reported throughout the literature in both prospective and population-based studies in Lyme disease endemic regions. The etiology of these symptoms is unknown, however several illness-causing mechanisms have been hypothesized, including microbial persistence, host immune dysregulation through inflammatory or secondary autoimmune pathways, or altered neural networks, as in central sensitization. Evaluation and characterization of persistent symptoms in Lyme disease is complicated by potential independent, repeat exposures to B. burgdorferi, as well as the potential for co-morbid diseases with overlapping symptom profiles. Antibody testing for B. burgdorferi is an insensitive measure after treatment, and no other FDA-approved tests currently exist. As such, diagnosis presents a complex challenge for physicians, while the lived experience for patients is one marked by uncertainty and often illness invalidation. Currently, there are no FDA-approved pharmaceutical therapies, and the safety and efficacy of off-label and/or complementary therapies have not been well studied and are not agreed-upon within the medical community. Post-treatment Lyme disease represents a narrow, defined, mechanistically-neutral subset of this larger, more heterogeneous group of patients, and is a useful definition in research settings as an initial subgroup of study. The aim of this paper is to review the current literature on the diagnosis, etiology, risk factors, and treatment of patients with persistent symptoms in the context of Lyme disease. The meaning and relevance of existing patient subgroups will be discussed, as will future research priorities, including the need to develop illness biomarkers, elucidate the biologic mechanisms of disease, and drive improvements in therapeutic options.
| S-EPMC7052487 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundMedia coverage of Lyme disease (LD) has led to an increase in consultations for presumed LD in Europe. However, LD is confirmed in only 10%-20% of patients, with a significant number remaining in a diagnostic dead-end.ObjectivesTo reach a deeper understanding of how patients themselves contribute to the diagnostic process. To describe the genesis of the LD hypothesis in care pathways.MethodsIn 2019, 30 patients from a prospective cohort consulting in the infectious diseases department at University Hospital in Marseille for presumed LD were recruited for semistructured interviews. The inclusion criteria were: suffering from subjective symptoms for 6 months, no clinical or paraclinical argument suggesting current LD. The patients' medical trajectories were collected using a biographical approach.ResultsThe diagnosis of LD was primarily triggered by identification with personal testimonies found on the Internet. Most of patients were leading their own diagnostic investigation. The majority of participants were convinced they had LD despite the lack of medical evidence and the scepticism of their referring GP.ConclusionGPs should first systematically explore patients' aetiologic representations in order to improve adherence to the diagnosis especially in the management of medically unexplained symptoms. Long COVID-19 syndrome challenge offers an opportunity to promote active patient involvement in diagnosis.
| S-EPMC9619758 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundNon-Hispanic Black individuals may be less likely to receive a diagnosis of dementia compared to non-Hispanic White individuals. These findings raise important questions regarding which factors may explain this observed association and any differences in the time to which disparities emerge following dementia onset.MethodsWe conducted a retrospective cohort study using survey data from the 1995 to 2016 Health and Retirement Study linked with Medicare fee-for-service claims. Using the Hurd algorithm (a regression-based approach), we identified dementia onset among older adult respondents (age ≥65 years) from the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status and proxy respondents. We determined date from dementia onset to diagnosis using Medicare data up to 3 years following onset using a list of established diagnosis codes. Cox Proportional Hazards modeling was used to examine the association between an individual's reported race and likelihood of diagnosis after accounting for sociodemographic characteristics, income, education, functional status, and healthcare use.ResultsWe identified 3435 older adults who experienced a new onset of dementia. Among them, 30.1% received a diagnosis within 36 months of onset. In unadjusted analyses, the difference in cumulative proportion diagnosed by race continued to increase across time following onset, p-value <0.001. 23.8% of non-Hispanic Black versus 31.4% of non-Hispanic White participants were diagnosed within 36 months of dementia onset, Hazard Ratio = 0.73 (95% CI: 0.61, 0.88). The association persisted after adjustment for functional status and healthcare use; however, these factors had less of an impact on the strength of the association than income and level of education.ConclusionLower diagnosis rates of dementia among non-Hispanic Black individuals persists after adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics, functional status, and healthcare use. Further understanding of barriers to diagnosis that may be related to social determinants of health is needed to improve dementia-related outcomes among non-Hispanic Black Americans.
| S-EPMC9669160 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectivesTo identify underlying subgroups with distinct symptom profiles, and to characterise and compare these subgroups across a range of demographic, clinical and psychosocial factors, within a heterogeneous group of patients with well-defined post-treatment Lyme disease (PTLD).DesignA clinical case series of patents.SettingParticipants were recruited from a single-site, Lyme disease referral clinic patient population and were evaluated by physical exam, clinical laboratory testing and standardised questionnaires.ParticipantsTwo hundred and twelve participants met study criteria for PTLD, with medical record-confirmed prior Lyme disease as well as current symptoms and functional impact.ResultsExploratory factor analysis classified 30 self-reported symptoms into 6 factors: 'Fatigue Cognitive', 'Ocular Disequilibrium', 'Infection-Type', 'Mood-Related', 'Musculoskeletal Pain' and 'Neurologic'. A final latent profile analysis was conducted using 'Fatigue Cognitive', 'Musculoskeletal Pain' and 'Mood-Related' factor-based scores, which produced three emergent symptom profiles, and participants were classified into corresponding subgroups with 59.0%, 18.9% and 22.2% of the sample, respectively. Compared with the other two groups, subgroup 1 had similarly low levels across all factors relative to the sample as a whole, and reported lower rates of disability (1.6% vs 10.0%, 12.8%; q=0.126, 0.035) and higher self-efficacy (median: 7.5 vs 6.0, 5.3; q=0.068,<0.001). Subgroup 2 had the highest 'Musculoskeletal Pain' factor-based scores (q≤0.001). Subgroup 3 was characterised overall by higher symptom factor-based scores, and reported higher depression (q≤0.001).ConclusionsThis analysis identified six symptom factors and three potentially clinically relevant subgroups among patients with well-characterised PTLD. We found that these subgroups were differentiated not only by symptom phenotype, but also by a range of other factors. This may serve as an initial step towards engaging with the symptom heterogeneity that has long been observed among patients with this condition.
| S-EPMC7812114 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-EPMC10981857 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Lyme disease (LD) is tick-borne disease whose post-treatment sequelae are not well understood. For this study, we enrolled 152 individuals with symptoms of post-treatment LD (PTLD) to profile their peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) with RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). Combined with RNA-seq data from 72 individuals with acute LD and 44 uninfected controls, we investigated differences in differential gene expression. We observe that most individuals with PTLD have an inflammatory signature that is distinguished from the acute LD group. By distilling gene sets from this study with gene sets from other sources, we identify a subset of genes that are highly expressed in the cohorts but are not already established as biomarkers for inflammatory response or other viral or bacterial infections. We further reduce this gene set by feature importance to establish an mRNA biomarker set capable of distinguishing healthy individuals from those with acute LD or PTLD as a candidate for translation into an LD diagnostic.
| S-EPMC9729821 | biostudies-literature