The results of a five-year study, published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine by researchers at New York Medical College, reveal intriguing new data on the spread of the Lyme disease bacteria through the blood stream.
The ability to find the Lyme spirochete--the tick-borne agent responsible--in the blood is itself an achievement because existing methods of culturing blood were not sensitive enough to detect its presence until College researchers developed a new technique, which they used in the study.
Leading the study was Gary P. Wormser, M.D., professor of medicine, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases and vice chairman of the Department of Medicine. "If Lyme disease stayed in the skin it would be a completely different and rather inconsequential infection--but it doesn't," Dr. Wormser explained. "The causative agent of Lyme disease can spread from its entry point at the tick bite site through the blood to distant sites such as the brain, heart, and joints. This study answers questions that have never been answered before and raises others that will likely stimulate future studies on Lyme disease."