Is it possible for Lyme disease to be misdiagnosed as ALS?

Is it possible for Lyme disease to be misdiagnosed as ALS? Are there
similarities in symptoms between these two diseases?

The question of a relationship between Lyme Disease and ALS first received
significant academic attention when Dr. John Halpern who was then a
neurologist at Stony Brook conducted a study in which he compared the
frequency of blood test positivity to the agent of Lyme disease among
patients ALS to community controls. The results indicated a higher
percentage of the ALS patients were seropositive for Lyme Disease. Since
then, there have been isolated case reports both in the media and one or two
in the academic literature indicating that a patient had been misdiagnosed
with an ALS-like illness only later to be rediagosed and treated for Lyme
disease with good clinical response. Although we suspect that there may be
rare individuals for whom such a relationship does exist, the vast majority
of patients with ALS are not thought to have Lyme disease as the cause of
their serious disease. Also of interest is that there is now a clinical
trial underway sponsored by the NIH in which an antibiotic, Minocycline, is
being used for 9 months to see if it is helpful in stabilizing or reducing
the progression of ALS; this is being done not because ALS is thought to be
infectious in etiology but because minocycline in known to have beneficial
anti-inflammatory effects.


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Relevant Pages

  • Gregory Bach is offering false hope to ALS patients
    ... Misdiagnosis of ALS as lyme disease ... When you get this IGeneX report, you feel you have hope again and Dr. Bach insists you come every 3 weeks while he prescribes all kinds of antibiotics. ...
    (sci.med.diseases.lyme)
  • ALS2Lyme - great web site!
    ... It is becoming more and more apparent that ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral ... Sclerosis) and many other neurological degenerative diseases are ... actually quite often misdiagnosed Lyme disease. ... Lyme disease is caused by the spirochete bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi ...
    (sci.med.diseases.lyme)
  • It is possible for Lyme to be misdiagnosed as ALS?
    ... Is it possible for Lyme disease to be misdiagnosed as ALS? ... percentage of the ALS patients were seropositive for Lyme Disease. ... trial underway sponsored by the NIH in which an antibiotic, Minocycline, is ...
    (sci.med.diseases.lyme)
  • Re: Scott Brazil dies from Lyme Disease Complications etc.
    ... Here is the deal most dumbasses use to make outrageous claims about ALS ... "Rates of seropositivity were lower among patients with ALS from ... Lyme disease prevalence), 9 had serologic evidence of exposure to ... Borrelia burgdorferi; 4 of 38 matched controls were seropositive. ...
    (sci.med.diseases.lyme)
  • LD and ALS
    ... Is it possible for Lyme disease to be misdiagnosed as ALS? ... percentage of the ALS patients were seropositive for Lyme Disease. ... trial underway sponsored by the NIH in which an antibiotic, Minocycline, is ...
    (sci.med.diseases.lyme)