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Updated: Jun 7, 2025
Author Spotlight: Expanding the Scope of Multiplex Immunoassays for Lyme Borreliosis Diagnostics and Pathogen Research
Published on: July 14, 2023
LTT-Validity in diagnosis and therapeutical decision making of neuroborreliosis: a prospective dual-centre study
G Summer1,2, V Fingerle3, A Spörl4,5
1Department of Neurology, HELIOS Klinikum München-West, Steinerweg 5, 81241, München, Germany. Gert.Summer@kbo.de.
Objectives:
The key objective of this study was to assess the validity of a commercially available in-house Lymphocyte Transformation Test (LTT) as a diagnostic parameter and indicator of disease activity/therapeutic efficacy in the context of Lyme neuroborreliosis (LNB).
Methods:
A prospective dual-centre study was conducted from 05/14 - 01/18. With respect to Borrelia-LTT a comparison was made between patients suffering from confirmed acute LNB and patients being affected by inflammatory neurologic diseases, defining the control group: Bell's palsy, viral meningitis, herpes zoster, Guillain-Barré-Syndrome and Encephalomyelitis disseminate. Furthermore, we investigated the LTT within the LNB group at the time of admission and again 12 weeks (+/- one week) later - after appropriate antibiotic treatment.
Results:
Cases included 15 patients with LNB and 58 participants in the control group. With regard to Borrelia-LTT we calculated a low sensitivity of 40% and a moderate specificity of 91% for LNB. Additionally, LTT-levels three months after adequate antibiotic therapy did not correlate with the therapeutic response of LNB patients.
Conclusions:
The present study shows that LTT is neither appropriate for LNB detection nor suitable as a follow-up marker.
