Document Type
Article
Publication Date
October 2007
Abstract
To confidently diagnose and treat Lyme disease, the clinician must first understand the natural history of this disease, especially its protean early manifestations. Emergency physicians, primary care physicians, and other providers need to be vigilant in terms of the timely recognition of erythema migrans (EM), the unique marker of early localized stage 1 disease. The classic EM, originally described as a slowly expanding bull's eye lesion, is now recognized to be present in only the minority of cases (9%); the dominant morphologic lesion of EM is now recognized to be the diffusely homogenous red plaque or patch, which occurs in over 50% of cases. This update will define the current morphologic features of early Lyme disease, the indication for serologic studies, and the most recent treatment guidelines, including therapeutic pitfalls.
Recommended Citation
Stonehouse, Amber; Studdiford, James S.; and Henry, C. Amber, "An update on the diagnosis and treatment of early Lyme Disease: "Focusing on the bull's eye, you may miss the mark"" (2007). Department of Family & Community Medicine Faculty Papers. Paper 8.
https://jdc.jefferson.edu/fmfp/8
Comments
This article has been peer reviewed. It is the authors' final version prior to publication in The Journal of Emergency Medicine 2007 (in press); the published version is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jemermed.2007.06.007. Copyright 2007 by Elsevier, Inc.