ANTI-BORRELIA-BURGDORFERI IMMUNOGLOBULIN SEROPREVALENCE IN PULMONARY SARCOIDOSIS - A NEGATIVE REPORT

The aetiology of sarcoidosis is still unknown, An infectious micro-org anism as causal agent far this disease could not he identified, but hi gh titres of antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi were detected in Chinese studies implying a causality with this disease, These findings , however, could not be reproduced by other researchers, The aim of th is study was, therefore, to evaluate the possible role of these spiroc hetes in the pathogenesis of sarcoidosis by serological examinations. Sixty sera of patients suffering from sarcoidosis were examined for an ti-B. burgdorferi immunoglobulin by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). ELlSAs for these antibodies show a high sensitivity, but a lo w specificity; therefore, a specific immunoblot was used to confirm po sitive results, Initially, 8% of the patients were reactive in the ELI SA, and 20% of these could be confirmed by immunoblot, Therefore, the prevalence for B. burgdorferi antibodies in sarcoidosis patients was 1 ,6%, This result did not differ significantly from the prevalence of B , burgdorferi antibodies in 1,000 regular blood donors of the city of Hamburg (7% reactive in the ELISA, 38% confirmed vira immunoblot, prev alence 2.7%). The hypothesis of causality between a B. burgdorferi inf ection and sarcoidosis cannot be confirmed by this data.