COMPARISON OF PERIPHERAL AND CENTRAL BIOPSY SITES FOR THE ISOLATION OF BORRELIA-BURGDORFERI SENSU-LATO FROM ERYTHEMA-MIGRANS SKIN-LESIONS

To compare peripheral and central biopsy sites for the isolation of Bo rrelia burgdorferi sensu late from typical erythema migrans lesions, t wo biopsy specimens (one from the margin and the other from the center of the lesion) were taken from each of 53 adult patients. Thirty-four (32.1%) of the 106 biopsy specimens and 23 (43.4%) of the 53 patients were culture-positive. Spirochetes were isolated in 19 (35.9%) of the 53 central and 15 (28.3%) of the 53 peripheral biopsies (nonsignifica nt difference). In 8 cases only the central specimen, in 4 cases only the peripheral specimen, and in 11 cases both specimens were positive. In a comparison of 36 annular and 17 homogeneous lesions, borreliae w ere isolated from 15 (41.7%) of the former and 8 (47.1%) of the latter . In the annular-lesion biopsies, 11 central and 12 peripheral specime ns were culture-positive. In the homogeneous-lesion biopsies, eight ce ntral and three peripheral specimens were culture-positive (nonsignifi cant difference); there were no culture-positive results solely for th e margin of homogeneous lesions. This study demonstrates that B. burgd orferi sensu late may be isolated from the central aspect of erythema migrans lesions as efficiently as from the peripheral aspect.