Ceftriaxone in the treatment of Lyme neuroborreliosis.

In an open non-comparative clinical trial with the aim of evaluating the clinical efficacy and safety of a 14 day course of 2 g ceftriaxone once daily, 46 patients with neuroborreliosis were entered at the Infectious Diseases Teaching Hospital in Prague 8. In 39 patients the diagnosis was early Lyme neuroborreliosis. Seven patients suffered from late stage disease.

Electron microscopy of Langerhans cells and Borrelia burgdorferi in Lyme disease patients.

To investigate dermal and epidermal involvement in the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi and to analyze the role of Langerhans cells and keratinocytes, 14 cases of erythema chronicum migrans and two controls were studied by means of electron microscopy, using negative staining and sectioning techniques. Using immunoelectron microscopy and histochemistry, positive results for B. burgdorferi were disclosed in 5 cases of erythema chronicum migrans and 3 cases of neuroborreliosis which were confirmed by cultivation.

Electron microscopy and the polymerase chain reaction of spirochetes from the blood of patients with Lyme disease.

Results of studies using direct antigen detection suggest that seronegative Lyme borreliosis is not rare and support the hypothesis that Borrelia antigens can persist in humans. We report three successful cultures from blood out of 30 attempts from 96 Lyme disease patients. The proof of borreliaemia in early or late phases of Lyme disease by immuno-capture electron microscopy has practical importance for subsequent cultivation.

An immunological study of Lyme disease.

84 patients in the second or third stages of serologically diagnosed Lyme disease suffering from different forms of central as well as peripheral nervous system involvement were tested for the participation of autoimmune mechanisms. Cell hypersensitivity to the encephalitogenic basic protein and to antigens from peripheral myelin was evaluated on an Opton cytopherometer according to the effect of the macrophage slowing factor--liberated during short-term incubation of sensibilized lymphocytes by the respective antigen--on the mobility of tannin-treated sheep red blood cells in an electric field. Judged by the presence of autoimmune reactions.

[The clinical picture and etiology of meningoencephalitis in hospitalized patients in 1986].

In 1986 in the CSR 978 cases of acute meningoencephalitis were notified, incl. 184 in the capital. In a group of 129 patients aged 1 to 63 years hospitalized at the First Clinic for Infectious Diseases in Prague-Bulovka (Paediatric Faculty Charles University) in 1986 the authors investigated the clinical course of acute meningoencephalitis in relation to the causal agent of the disease.

[Arrhythmia as a major manifestation of Lyme borreliosis].

The submitted case-history is focused on one of the leading manifestations of cardiac affection in Lyme borreliosis. The authors recapitulate and analyze the patient's complaints, her electrocardiographic and other findings and confront them with data from the literature on this "new" nosological unit.

[Immunologic study of Lyme borreliosis].

In 84 patients in the second or third stage of serologically proved Lyme borreliosis suffering from different forms of central and/or peripheral nervous system involvement the participation of autoimmunological mechanisms was investigated. The cellular hypersensitivity to encephalitogenic basic protein and to antigens from peripheral myelin was evaluated on the cytopherometer Opton according to the influence of macrophage slowing factor--liberated during the short-term incubation of the sensibilized lymphocytes with specific antigen--on the mobility of tanned sheep red blood cells in the electrical field. The frequency of positive findings in comparison with the results in other types of neuroinfections, examined previously, put the Lyme borreliosis on the first place.

Cross reactivity among human enterovirus serotypes as revealed by microneutralization assay technique.

Paired or tripled serum specimens examined for cross reactions between poliomyelitis viruses and other non-polio enteroviruses were obtained from 356 patients (217 males and 139 females) with various clinical diagnoses (aseptic meningitis, meningoencephalitis, paretic neuro-infections, upper respiratory tract infections, bronchopneumonia) who were sampled in 1984 and 1985. The sera were examined by the microneutralization assay technique in flat-bottomed 96-well polyvinyl chloride plates against 100-300 TCD50 of these enterovirus serotypes: CA9, CB1-CB5, E1, E2, E4-E9, E17, E20, E24, E30, EV71 and polioviruses P1-P3. The tests were carried out on BGM or RD cells.