A highly sensitive diagnostic test that also shows treatment progress!!
Lymerick
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Lyme disease is the most prevalent tick-borne disease in the US. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported nearly 32,500 new cases in 2011, though it is estimated that the actual number could be up to 10-fold higher, making Lyme disease an epidemic larger than AIDS, West Nile virus, and Avian flu combined.1–5

Unfortunately, only a fraction of these cases are being treated due to equivocal clinical manifestations, inaccurate tests, and underreporting.2 Patients not receiving adequate treatment may develop chronic infection or late-stage Lyme diseases such as chronic Lyme arthritis or chronic Lyme neuroborreliosis, which can be devastating in some cases.6

Lyme disease is caused by Borrelia burgdorferi, a bacterium of the spirochete class. Lyme disease is a zoonotic, vector-borne disease transmitted by the Ixodes (blacklegged) tick. Symptoms may include observed tick bite, a "bulls-eye" rash, flu-like symptoms, joint pain, neurological symptoms, heart palpitations, and severe fatigue.

The current CDC-recommended evaluation for diagnosis is a two-tier test, including ELISA and western blot analyses. These tests are serological assays that detect antibodies to B. burgdorferi. The low sensitivity of the two-tier tests (about 30% in early Lyme disease and 50% in late Lyme disease) and the significant seronegativity of Lyme patients (as many as 30% to 50% of cases) suggests that more sensitive T cell-based laboratory tests should also be developed.7 A thorough evaluation for Lyme requires testing for a humoral and a cellular immune response. This is done by measuring both antibodies (humoral/WB) and T cell activity (cell-mediated/ELISPOT).

SNIP