What are the signs of Lyme borreliosis? How can we diagnose the disease? What can we do in case of infection?
Lyme borreliosis, also called Lyme disease, is the most common vector-borne disease in Europe. The disease is transmitted by some tick species of the genus Ixodes (shield tick) which are infected with gram negative bacteria (spirochetes) of the Borrelia burgdorferi sensu latu complex. The pathogens can be transmitted to humans during the suction process. The most frequent reported manifestation of Lyme disease is the socalled Erythema migrans (EM), a characteristic circular area of redness around the tick bite. If the infection remains unrecognized and untreated - an antibiotic therapy is successful in almost all cases - it may easily spread into the entire body and affect tissues or organs such as skin, nervous system, joints or heart. The disease than manifests in Lyme Arthritis (LA), Acrodermatitis chronica athrophicans (ACA) or Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB) including severe neurological symptoms.

Because of the variety of symptoms and manifestations the diagnostics of Lyme borreliosis faces major challenges. In routine diagnostics the first method of choice is the serological detection of antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi. In case of positive and unclear screening results diagnostic tools for confirmation are in great demand. Line immunoassays detecting antibodies against specific antigens are very well accepted for this purpose.

Advantages of screening and confirmation tests are combined in the Luminex® technology. Determination of at least up to 50 different parameters or specific antibody populations in one single approach is possible.

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