Chronic neurologic manifestations of erythema migrans borreliosis.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to B Rehse-Küpper.
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Antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi develop slowly. Low titers can be anamnestic. In order to prove the etiology of manifestations of erythema chronicum migrans disease of the nervous system like meningopolyneuritis Garin-Bujadoux-Bannwarth or progressive borrelia encephalomyelitis we used the ELISA to measure specific IgG antibodies against Ixodes ricinus borrelia per microgram IgG in serum and cerebrospinal fluid. With the mentioned method we were able to demonstrate locally synthesized antibodies in the cerebrospinal fluid. Until the 110th day of illness a difference between serum and CSF in favour of the latter as high as five binary dilution steps could be found. Later on in time the difference decreased to four dilution steps or less.
Between 1978 and 1984 there were 299 serologically confirmed cases of tick-borne encephalitis in the Federal Republic of Germany (180 males, 119 females; aged 1-82 years). A previous tick bite was recalled by 258 (86.2%). The illness had taken the form of a feverish infection in 13, meningitis in 161, meningoencephalitis in 13, and meningomyeloencephalitis in 14. There were three deaths (1%), and permanent neurological sequelae in 20 (7%). The incidence of new cases cases between April and October varied from eight to 118 per year. The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was the place of infection in 239, other European countries in 52 (42 in Austria). In the FRG the disease occurred predominantly in Bavaria (156), half of the cases in Lower Bavaria and eastern and northern Upper Bavaria and in Baden-Württemberg (78), concentrated in the regions around Freiburg and Karlsruhe, a few (3) in Hessen and Rhineland-Palatinate (2). No cases were noted in other parts of the FRG. Antibody studies on 8526 persons in the endemic regions of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg produced rates of 2.0 and 1.2%, respectively. The rate increased with age, to a peak of 2.4% in the seventh decade. Those working in forestry and agriculture had a higher antibody rate, at 4.6 and 3.3% respectively, than civil servants, employees and housewives (0.4-0.9%). In some areas the antibody rate varied from less than 1 to 6%. Those with higher antibody rates also had higher infection rates, and vice versa.
A 54-year-old housewife became ill with transient diplopia followed by facial paralysis, tremor of the right hand and a progressively worsening disturbance in gait. Four years after the first appearance of the disease bilateral hypacusia, paralysis of the right hypoglossal nerve, dysarthria, severe spastic tetraparesis with ataxia, urinary retention and an organically induced character change were present. Lumbar puncture fluid contained 51/mm3 lymphocytes and 1164 mg/dl protein. Immunoglobulin A, G and M, synthesised locally, could be detected in cisternal fluid. The serum had a high antibody titre against Ixodes ricinus-Borrelia antigen and the same antibodies, formed locally, were present in the lumbar fluid. The neurological deficiencies improved markedly under parenteral penicillin treatment and the antibody titre decreased. The detection of Borrelian antibodies, especially those synthesised locally in the CSF, enabled an aetiological diagnosis to be made in seven other patients aged 18-47 years in whom the disease had been present for 1 to 8 years. These patients likewise presented symptoms characteristic of a disseminated disease of the CNS, with spastic pareses and evidence in the spinal fluid of chronic inflammation and disruption of CSF barriers in particular. This progressive encephalomyelitis differs from the common and spontaneously healing meningo-polyneuritis (Garin-Bujadoux-Bannworth), the usual manifestation of erythema chronicum migrans of the nervous system, in its progressive nature, its invasion of the CNS and the possible long lasting severe damage when not specifically treated.
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In the years 1973 and 1975 mosquitoes and some other Diptera (Tabanidae, Simuliidae, Hippoboscidae) were tested for virus. 13,924 mosquitoes, 75 horseflies and 60 blackflies were processed in 1973. Five strains of Tahyna virus were isolated from mosquito species Aedes vexans. 3,378 mosquitoes and 12 sheep keds were tested for virus in 1975. Twelve strains of Calovo virus were isolated from Anopheles maculipennis and one strain of Tahyna virus was obtained from Aedes vexans mosquitoes.
During the years 1972--1976 a total of 14.692 ticks of the species Ixodes ricinus (L.), (2.738 adults and 11.954 nymphs) was collected. They were taken from five areas where human Central European encephalitis virus (CEE) infections had occurred. By means of, intracerebral (IC) and subcutaneous (SC) isolation experiments with suckling mice 19 agents, exhibiting the pathogenic characteristics of CEE virus, were isolated from these ticks. In neutralization tests with suckling mice these isolates could be identified as CEE virus strains. From the 14.692 ticks at least 1.29% were virus carriers as evidenced by the number of isolated virus strains. By the same reasoning at least 3.6% of the adults and 0.76% of the nymphs must have contained virus. We were successful in each of the five areas, rather distant from each other, to isolate the virus. The favorable ecological conditions for the main vector Ixodes ricinus in the Federal Republic of Germany give rise to the assumption that this medically important tick-borne disease might be permanently present in many areas.
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From Ixodes ricinus ticks collected in a tick-borne encephalitis focus in Baden-Württemberg, an agent pathogenic exclusively for suckling mice was isolated. Obviously a virus, it passed membrane filters with a pore width of 200 nm. It was resistant to ether and sodium deoxycholate, but not to chloroform. In the complement fixation test it showed a close, and in the neutralisation test a more one-sided relationship to Colorado tick fever virus.
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