Diagnosing Lyme Disease

Excerpt

To the editors: Uncritical clinical application of the T-cell proliferative assay described by Dressier and colleagues (1) may further confuse the evaluation of patients for Lyme disease. The investigators proposed that the test may be helpful in evaluating patients who have clinically apparent late-stage Lyme disease and whose humoral immune response has waned or has been aborted by early (subcurative) antibiotic therapy (1). Such circumstances are rarely encountered. Furthermore, the need for a confirmatory diagnostic test is arguable; few physicians would withhold antimicrobial therapy for Lyme disease on the basis of seronegativity when the patient's history and physical findings are