All Posts Tagged With: "Bell’s palsy"

Linda’s Comment:   Bell’s palsy and Lyme neuroborreliosis are the two most common diagnoses in patients with peripheral facial palsy in areas endemic for Borrelia burgdorferi.\

Excerpt:

CONCLUSIONS: We found that the time of the year, associated neurological
symptoms and mononuclear pleocytosis were strong predictive factors for
Lyme neuroborreliosis as a cause of peripheral facial palsy in an area
endemic for Borrelia.

Linda’s comment:  WHEN I was first diagnosed, they diagnosed me with SLE, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Fibromyalgia and a host of other autoimmune disease…I remember when a group member, whom I’m not close friends with, said, “no, you have lyme disease and co-infections”…I thought he was nuts….didn’t take long until I realized, after hours  and hours of research that HE WAS RIGHt….I even had carotid surgery, as a spirochete was wrapped around the carotid and choking me….the idiot doctors, argued with me that it was not Lyme…it wasn’t until 6 months later when I finally got my hands on the pathology report, with the pathologists requesting more testing using specific dyes, did I know….THANK GOD for my alternative docs who diagnosed me and alternative treatments began….

Excerpt:

A 
number of studies previously published, and new information presented 
here, suggest that EA infections may be an underlying, undiagnosed cause 
for these and other immune system diseases. This hypothesis, long 
overlooked, has never been subjected to adequate, rigorous study 
sufficient to prove or disprove its truth. If so, patients may be 
treated with antibiotics, and marrow transplant manipulations already 
used in treatment of diseases such as lupus and leukemia may become more 
effective.

Link: http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&id=21125053&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks

Excerpt:

A 54-year-old American woman presented with an episode of syncope. This had
occurred against a background of several days of dizziness and palpitations.
Her medical history included Bell’s palsy, which had been diagnosed three
weeks earlier. On examination, she had a resting bradycardia of 31 beats per
minute and her electrocardiogram demonstrated third-degree atrioventricular
(AV) block.
She was referred to cardiology for consideration of permanent pacemaker
implantation. Given her facial nerve palsy and AV block, a diagnosis of Lyme
borreliosis was suspected. Within 48 hours of initiation of ceftriaxone, she
reverted to sinus rhythm, albeit with a marked first-degree AV block.
Subsequent serology confirmed the diagnosis. Reversible causes of complete
AV block should always be considered and appropriate therapy may avoid the
need for permanent pacemaker insertion.

Full article: http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/elink.fcgi?dbfrom=pubmed&id=20569437&retmode=ref&cmd=prlinks

Excerpt:

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: The metabolism of amyloid precursor protein
(APP) and beta-amyloid (Abeta) is widely studied in Alzheimer’s
disease, where Abeta deposition and plaque development are
essential components of the pathogenesis.
However, the physiological role of amyloid in the adult nervous
system remains largely unknown. We have previously found altered
cerebral amyloid metabolism in other neuroinflammatory
conditions. To further elucidate this, we investigated amyloid
metabolism in patients with Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB).

METHODS: The
first part of the study was a cross-sectional cohort study in 61
patients with acute facial palsy (19 with LNB and 42 with
idiopathic facial paresis, Bell’s
palsy) and 22 healthy controls. CSF was analysed for the
beta-amyloid peptides Abeta38, Abeta40 and Abeta42, and the
amyloid precursor protein (APP) isoforms alpha-sAPP and
beta-sAPP. CSF total-tau (T-tau), phosphorylated tau (P-tau) and
neurofilament protein (NFL) were measured to monitor neural cell
damage. The second part of the study was a prospective
cohort-study in 26 LNB patients undergoing consecutive lumbar
punctures before and after antibiotic treatment to study
time-dependent dynamics of the biomarkers.

RESULTS: In the cross-sectional
study, LNB patients had lower levels of CSF alpha-sAPP, beta-sAPP
and P-tau, and higher levels of CSF NFL than healthy controls and
patients with Bell’s palsy.
In the prospective study, LNB patients had low levels of CSF
alpha-sAPP, beta-sAPP and P-tau at baseline, which all increased
towards normal at follow-up.

Clinical practice guidelines are increasing in number. Unfortunately,
when scientific evidence is uncertain, limited, or evolving, as is often
the case, conflict often arises between guideline committees and
practicing physicians, who bear the direct responsibility for the care of
individual patients. The 2006 Infectious Diseases Society of America
guidelines for Lyme disease, which have limited scientific support,
could, if implemented, limit the clinical discretion of treating physicians
and the treatment options available to patients

Introduction

Clinical practice guidelines are now ubiquitous throughout the
United States. The National Guidelines Clearing House, under the
category “diseases,” currently lists 2,126 separate guidelines on its
web site. Clinical guidelines are intended to assist physicians in
patient care by clearly communicating the results of the guideline
committees’ evaluation of available therapeutic options. However,
the processes by which individual guidelines are constructed may be
less clear, leading to disagreements between the issuing committee
and the physicians who treat patients-physicians who may well be
as experienced and knowledgeable as the guideline committee. Continued