MacDonald A B, Berger B W, Schwan T G
Department of Pathology, Southampton Hospital, New York 11968.
Acta Trop. 1990 Dec;48(2):89-94. doi: 10.1016/0001-706x(90)90047-4.
Lyme borreliosis, a spirochetal infection caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, may become clinically active after a period of latency in the host. Active cases of Lyme disease may show clinical relapse following antibiotic therapy. The latency and relapse phenomena suggest that the Lyme disease spirochete is capable of survival in the host for prolonged periods of time. We studied 63 patients with erythema migrans, the pathognomonic cutaneous lesion of Lyme borreliosis, and examined in vitro cultures of biopsies from the active edge of the erythematous patch. Sixteen biopsies yielded spirochetes after prolonged incubations of up to 10.5 months, suggesting that Borrelia burgdorferi may be very slow to divide in certain situations. Some patients with Lyme borreliosis may require more than the currently recommended two to three week course of antibiotic therapy to eradicate strains of the spirochete which grow slowly.
莱姆病螺旋体病是一种由伯氏疏螺旋体引起的螺旋体感染，在宿主体内潜伏一段时间后可能会在临床上变得活跃。莱姆病的活跃病例在抗生素治疗后可能会出现临床复发。潜伏期和复发现象表明，莱姆病螺旋体能够在宿主体内长期存活。我们研究了63例游走性红斑患者，这是莱姆病螺旋体病的特征性皮肤病变，并检查了红斑斑块活跃边缘活检组织的体外培养物。16份活检组织在长达10.5个月的长时间培养后产生了螺旋体，这表明伯氏疏螺旋体在某些情况下可能分裂非常缓慢。一些莱姆病螺旋体病患者可能需要超过目前推荐的两到三周的抗生素治疗疗程，以根除生长缓慢的螺旋体菌株。
