Can Lyme disease cause neurological problems?

Can Lyme disease cause neurological problems?

Neurological complications most often occur in early disseminated Lyme disease, with numbness, pain, weakness, facial palsy/droop (paralysis of the facial muscles), visual disturbances, and meningitis symptoms such as fever, stiff neck, and severe headache.

Can Lyme cause transverse myelitis?

Acute transverse myelitis (ATM) is a rare, potentially devastating neurological syndrome that has variety of causes, infectious being one of them. Lyme disease (LD) is the most common vector borne zoonosis in the United States (U.S.).

Does neurological Lyme show up on MRI?

Inflammatory abnormalities in the brain are also assessed with MRI scans. In children with neurologic Lyme disease, the MRI may reveal white matter hyperintensities suggestive of inflammation or areas of demyelination.

Can Lyme disease cause Guillain Barre?

Lyme disease is an uncommon cause of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) but is an important differential to consider for patients presenting with symptoms, particularly in the Northeast US.

What is chronic neurological Lyme disease?

Neurological Lyme disease, also known as Lyme neuroborreliosis, occurs when the Lyme- or TBRF-causing bacteria invade the central nervous system. Some describe neurological Lyme disease as a Lyme infection of the brain. Research has found that up to 15-40% of late-stage Lyme patients develop neurological disorders.

Can neuropathy from Lyme be reversed?

This neuropathy presents with intermittent paresthesias without significant deficits on clinical examination and is reversible with appropriate antibiotic treatment.

Can Lyme disease cause inflammation of spinal cord?

Lyme meningitis presents mostly as leptomeningitis, characterized by lymphocytic pleocytosis in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). LNB patients may experience encephalopathy, encephalitis, and encephalomyelitis concomitant with white matter inflammation in the brain and spinal cord.

Does Lyme disease affect your spine?

The disease also commonly affects the neck and cervical spine, causing pain, stiffness, headache, and possible radicular symptoms. Joint, muscle, and nerve pain begin to occur during active infection, with the knee being a favored site of joint pain.

Can Lyme turn into MS?

Sometimes, people who think they may have Lyme disease find out they have MS (an immune-mediated central nervous system disorder). Lyme disease as an infection can act to trigger MS attacks. This is why being seen by a neurologist specially trained to know the differences is key.

Can a tick bite cause GBS?

Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is an acute paralytic neuropathy. Limited reports of GBS caused by tick-borne pathogens exist. Lyme disease is a tick-borne infectious disease that is commonly caused by Borrelia burgdorferi. The nervous system may be involved and is called neuroborreliosis.

Can Lyme cause permanent brain damage?

However it is extraordinarily rare for there to be any permanent damage to the brain itself. More importantly, there are many symptoms that occur in patients with Lyme disease and most other infections that may make one think there is a problem with the brain; however, that is not the case.