Pilot Study of Immunoblots with Recombinant Antigens for Laboratory Diagnosis of Lyme Disease.

Accurate laboratory diagnosis of Lyme disease (Lyme borreliosis), caused by the spirochete (BB), is difficult and yet important to prevent serious disease. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) presently recommends a screening test for serum antibodies followed by confirmation with a more specific Western blot (WB) test to detect IgG and IgM antibodies against antigens in whole cell lysates of BB. species related to BB cause tick-borne relapsing fever (TBRF).