Lyme Carditis in Children Usually Transient but Can Be Life Threatening
By Linda on Mar 13, 2010 in Infections
Linda’s comments: Lyme Carditis in children is not getting the attention it should be getting. Makes me wonder how many of the athletes who drop dead in their sport isn’t suffering from Lyme Carditis and have been grossly mis-diagnosed??
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) May 01 – Manifestations of Lyme carditis in children can range from asymptomatic first-degree heart block to fulminant myocarditis, physicians at Harvard Medical School report in the May issue of Pediatrics. Data from their case series indicate that older age, arthralgia, and cardiopulmonary symptoms were independent predictors of carditis in pediatric patients with early disseminated Lyme disease.
In untreated Lyme disease, signs and symptoms of early dissemination may manifest within weeks to months of a tick bite, Dr. John M. Costello and co-investigators note. To characterize the clinical course of Lyme carditis in children, they reviewed cases of 207 children treated between 1994 and 2008 for early disseminated Lyme disease.