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Volume 28, Number 4—April 2022
CME ACTIVITY - Research

Unique Clinical, Immune, and Genetic Signature in Patients with Borrelial Meningoradiculoneuritis1

Katarina Ogrinc2, Sergio A. Hernández2, Miša Korva, Petra Bogovič, Tereza Rojko, Lara Lusa, Geena Chiumento, Franc Strle3, and Klemen Strle3Comments to Author 
Author affiliations: University Medical Center Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia (K. Ogrinc, P. Bogovič, T. Rojko, F. Strle); New York State Department of Health, Albany, New York, USA (S.A. Hernández, K. Strle); University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana (M. Korva, L. Lusa); Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA (G. Chiumento)

Main Article

Table 1

Clinical characteristics of patients with confirmed or suspected Lyme neuroborreliosis, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 2006–2013*

Characteristic MR, n = 19 PFP/meningitis, n = 42 Suspected LNB, n = 59 p value†
MR vs. PFP‡ MR vs. sLNB PFP‡ vs. sLNB
Demographics
Age, y 51 (21–73) 52 (15–81) 51 (25–83) 0.4 0.8 0.4
Sex
F 9 (47) 17 (40) 45 (76) 0.8 0.02 0.0004
M 10 (53) 25 (60) 14 (24)
  No. tick bites/y
 1 (0–17)
 2 (0–20)
 2 (0–30)
 0.9
 0.7
 0.5
Clinical characteristics
Current or recent EM 13 (68) 10 (24) 59 (100)§ 0.004 0.0001 <0.0001
Solitary EM 12 (63) 6 (14) 53 (90) 0.0007 0.01 <0.0001
Multiple EM 1 (5) 4 (10) 6 (10) 1 1 1
EM duration, d 35 (6–128) 11 (3–60) 21 (1–240) 0.2 0.9 0.01
No. symptoms/patient 6 (1–12) 3 (1–10) 4 (1–13) <0.0001 0.01 0.001
Duration of symptoms, d 30 (7–75) 10 (3–365) 16 (2–270) 0.001 0.2 0.03
Radicular pain 19 (100%) 0 (0%) 9 (15%) <0.0001 <0.0001 0.01
Peripheral facial palsy
 9 (47%)
 35 (83%)
 0 (0%)
 0.01
 <0.0001
 <0.0001
CSF findings
  Pleocytosis 19 (100) 42 (100) 0 1.0 <0.0001 <0.0001
  Leukocyte count, × 106 cells/L 160 (15–886) 56 (6–1579) 1 (0–4) 0.005 <0.0001 <0.0001
  Lymphocyte count no. × 106 cells/L 144 (15–811) 47 (4–1477) 1 (0–4) 0.005 <0.0001 <0.0001
  Borrelia culture positivity¶ 4 (21) 3 (7) 0 0.2 0.002 0.06

*Values are no. (%) or median (range). CSF, cerebrospinal fluid; EM, erythema migrans; LNB, Lyme neuroborreliosis; MR, meningoradiculoneuritis; PFP, peripheral facial palsy; sLNB, suspected Lyme neuroborreliosis. †Statistical analyses were performed using Mann-Whitney nonparametric rank sum test. Median values are shown. Bold type indicates statistically significant p values after Benjamini-Hochberg correction for multiple comparisons (false discovery rate = 0.05). ‡PFP group includes 42 LNB patients without radicular pain (35 patients with PFP and 7 with lymphocytic meningitis). §Presence of EM was a criterion for suspected LNB. ¶Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato positive culture result in CSF.

Main Article

1Part of the research reported here was presented at the 31st European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (online), July 9–12, 2021.

2These first authors contributed equally to this article.

3These senior authors contributed equally to this article.

Page created: February 22, 2022
Page updated: March 22, 2022
Page reviewed: March 22, 2022
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