Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato is a spirochete bacterium that causes Lyme disease in humans.  Lyme disease is a tick-borne illness endemic in North America, Europe and Asia. 

Lyme disease manifests clinically with mild flu-like illness, skin lesions, neurological involvement and arthritis. Many patients are asymptomatic however.  Early clinical presentations of Lyme disease may display erythema migrans (EM) lesion, a localised homogenous expanding rash that spreads into larger circular ‘bulls-eye’ appearance. Multiple lesions may be present in early disseminated stages. If untreated, patients may develop monoarticular and oligo articular arthritis for several years later.

Serological evidence of Lyme disease may be absent in early stages as IgG and IgM antibodies to Borrelia burgdorferi may take up to 8 weeks to develop.

Pathology North, Royal North Shore Hospital recently completed a second evaluation on the kits from DiaSorin and as a result of the second round of evaluations, the laboratory is now comfortable to perform Borrelia burgdorferi serology the DiaSorin Liaison XL.