How often is Lyme disease misdiagnosed as MS?

14% of chronic Lyme patients report being initially misdiagnosed with MS and roughly 2% are misdiagnosed with other neurologic diseases, like ALS, Parkinson's and Multiple systems atrophy. Now you might think no harm/no foul—so long as they eventually correctly diagnose and treat the Lyme disease.

Can MS be mistaken for Lyme disease?

Lyme disease and MS are often confused

The symptoms of Lyme disease and MS can be similar. Doctors may confuse one with the other. To diagnose these conditions, your doctor will need to conduct blood and other tests.

Can Lyme disease trigger MS?

Sometimes, people who think they may have Lyme disease find out they have MS (an immune-mediated central nervous system disorder). Lyme disease as an infection can act to trigger MS attacks.

What is Lyme disease commonly misdiagnosed as?

As a result, sometimes people who are infected with Lyme disease are incorrectly diagnosed with other ailments such as fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, and multiple sclerosis (MS). These chronic conditions aren't the only illnesses that can be mistaken for Lyme disease.

Can you have brain lesions with Lyme disease?

Krüger et al (8) evaluated 96 patients with Lyme disease. In one group, 15 patients had brain or spinal cord clinical signs and symptoms. Computed tomography of the brain was performed in 14 patients; seven of 14 patients showed brain edema or ischemic-type lesions.

Multiple Sclerosis vs. Lyme Disease

Can Lyme look like MS on MRI?

Lyme disease symptoms may also have a relapsing-remitting course. In addition, Lyme disease occasionally produces other abnormalities that are similar to those seen in MS, including positive findings on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of the brain and analysis of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF).

What does Lyme disease look like on an MRI?

MRI scan in patients with neurological Lyme disease may demonstrate increased intensity in white matter at multiple foci on T2-weighted images, suggesting demyelination or inflammatory changes. After antibiotic therapy, spontaneous resolution of MRI white matter hyper-intensities has been observed in Lyme disease.

What can mimic Lyme?

Why do some doctors dispute the diagnosis of Lyme disease?

Without laboratory findings, however, most doctors are uncomfortable with diagnosis and treatment of chronic Lyme disease. This may be because Lyme disease symptoms can be mistaken for those of other illnesses, such as chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia and depression.

Is Lyme disease overdiagnosed?

“While Lyme disease is overdiagnosed in this population, a novel finding, not previously reported in a large series, is the frequency of diagnoses of coinfections in addition to Lyme disease (both Ixodes and non-Ixodes tickborne [diseases], plus non-tickborne infections), which were believed to be contributing to the ...

What are the symptoms of neurological Lyme disease?

What are the symptoms? Neurological complications most often occur in early disseminated Lyme disease, with numbness, pain, weakness, facial palsy/droop (paralysis of the facial muscles), visual disturbances, and meningitis symptoms such as fever, stiff neck, and severe headache.

Is neurological Lyme disease Real?

Many patients referred for Lyme disease are ultimately found to have a rheumatologic or neurologic diagnosis.

Can a neurologist diagnose Lyme disease?

However, it's important to remember that seeing a specialist for symptoms related to Lyme disease without treating Lyme disease is costly and dangerous. In other words, a rheumatologist or neurologist will not be able to treat your Lyme if no diagnosis has been made.

What mimics multiple sclerosis?

These include fibromyalgia and vitamin B12 deficiency, muscular dystrophy (MD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), migraine, hypo-thyroidism, hypertension, Beçhets, Arnold-Chiari deformity, and mitochondrial disorders, although your neurologist can usually rule them out quite easily.

Can Lyme cause demyelination?

Lyme disease may affect the central nervous system causing organic brain disease or syndromes suggestive of demyelination.

Will a Spinal Tap show Lyme disease?

A lumbar puncture should be performed if Lyme meningitis is in the differential diagnosis. Whether all patients with cranioneuropathy require lumbar puncture before treatment is controversial. Occasionally Lyme disease presents as pseudotumor cerebri, and in such cases an opening pressure is essential for diagnosis.

Would Lyme disease show up in routine blood work?

You do not usually need tests to show that you have Lyme disease. In most cases, there's a clear sign of Lyme disease—a painless, spreading rash that often grows to look like a bull's eye. If you have this rash, and you recently had a tick bite or were in an area known for Lyme disease, you don't need a test.

Is Lyme disease psychosomatic?

This is a mischaracterization of psychosomatic disorders. Lyme pain is real, not imagined. Often, patients lose their health, livelihoods, relationship, home, and dignity in the process of getting diagnosed. This is not due to an improper coping mechanism or a cognitive manifestation of emotional stress.

Why is chronic Lyme controversial?

The disease is caused by bacteria called Borrelia, and it is spread by ticks. One of the biggest controversies surrounding Lyme is determining whether or not someone has the so-called persistent or chronic Lyme disease. The CDC and most specialists prefer to use a different term, post-treatment Lyme disease (PTLD).

Can a Lyme test be false negative?

Lyme disease is known to inhibit the immune system and 20-30% of patients have falsely negative antibody tests.

What causes a false positive Lyme test?

Infection with other diseases, including some tickborne diseases, or some viral, bacterial, or autoimmune diseases, can result in false positive test results. Some tests give results for two types of antibody, IgM and IgG. Positive IgM results should be disregarded if the patient has been ill for more than 30 days.

Why is Lyme disease called the great imitator?

Lyme is called “The Great Imitator,” because its symptoms mimic many other diseases. It can affect any organ of the body, including the brain and nervous system, muscles and joints, and the heart.

Can Lyme disease cause white matter lesions?

Up to 40% of adults with Lyme disease may also have small white matter hyperintensities, but it should be noted that the number of hyperintensities increase with age — even among patients who do not have Lyme disease.

Can Lyme disease show up on a CT scan?

Plutchok, MD, and their colleagues in the Divison of Nuclear Medicine, Department of Radiology, subsequently found that at least half of patients with chronic Lyme disease have brain abnormalities, evident on SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography) scans.

What is neurological Lyme disease?

Neurological Lyme disease, also known as Lyme neuroborreliosis, occurs when the Lyme- or TBRF-causing bacteria invade the central nervous system. Some describe neurological Lyme disease as a Lyme infection of the brain. Research has found that up to 15-40% of late-stage Lyme patients develop neurological disorders.