Many Lyme Disease Tests Unnecessary, Study Finds

Many Lyme Disease Tests Unnecessary, Study Finds
By Merritt McKinney

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Many people are unnecessarily tested for Lyme disease, which could lead to misdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment, a new study indicates.

In the study, researchers surveyed 303 physicians about 365 Lyme disease tests that they had ordered.

Analysis of the responses showed that "only 20 percent of tests were appropriate, 27 percent inappropriate and 53 percent were discretionary," meaning that their appropriateness was undetermined, Dr. Alan H. Ramsey of the University of Wisconsin and Reedsburg Area Medical Center told Reuters Health.

Ramsey and his colleagues are concerned that inappropriate testing may lead to both the underdiagnosis and overdiagnosis of Lyme disease. The blood test used to detect Lyme disease is not full-proof, so false-positive results may lead to unnecessary treatment with Antibiotics , the researchers note in the July/August issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

On the other hand, false-negative test results may delay treatment and allow the infection to spread in the body, according to the researchers.

Part of the problem is that patients often ask to be tested for Lyme disease when they do not need to be tested, according to Ramsey.

"Many test requests were initiated by the patient, and these were more likely to be inappropriate than those initiated by physicians," he said.

The Wisconsin physician said that people request Lyme disease tests for several reasons, one being that they know or suspect they have been bitten by a tick.

"A tick bite without signs or symptoms is not a sufficient reason for Lyme disease testing," Ramsey said.

Getting Lyme disease from a tick is not easy. Ramsey explained that a deer tick must be attached to a person and become engorged on blood for at least 24 hours to transmit the disease. He noted that as many as 80 percent of people with Lyme disease develop a tell-tale bull's eye rash after getting a tick bite.

If this rash develops, there is no need for a blood test, according to Ramsey. "The patient should be treated, not tested," he said.

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