Detection of Borrelia afzelii, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia garinii and group VS116 by PCR in skin biopsies of patients with erythema migrans and acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of two polymerase chain reaction (PCR) procedures using skin biopsies of 20 erythema migrans (EM) and 24 acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans (ACA) patients. METHODS: One assay amplified a fragment of the outer surface protein (Osp) A gene. The second method amplified the spacer region between the 5S and 23S rRNA genes; hybridization of this fragment allowed identification of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato species.