Table 1.
Summary of previous studies investigating the relation between Borrelia burgdorferi infection and morphoea in different geographical locations
| Reference | Country | Direct visualisation in tissue sections of morphoea biopsies | Serology | Culture from biopsies of morphoeic lesions | PCR analysis of DNA extracts of morphoea biopsies |
| Aberer et al (1987)14 | Austria | 3/18 (immunoperoxidase) | 8/15 | 1/4 | ND |
| Aberer et al (1988)15 | Austria | 3/9 (immunoperoxidase) | 5/9 | ND | ND |
| Aberer et al (1991)16 | Austria | ND | 14/30 | 1/11 | ND |
| Aberer and Stanek (1987)17 | Austria | 4/13 (immunoperoxidase) | 7/13 | 1/3 | ND |
| Breier et al (1996)18 | Austria | ND | 13/39* | ND | ND |
| Aberer et al (1996)19 | Austria | 4/16 (immunoperoxidase) | ND | 0/22 | ND |
| Breier et al (1999)20 | Austria | 0/1 (silver stain) | 1/1 | 1/1† | ND |
| Fujiwara et al (1997)7‡ | Germany | ND | ND | ND | 3/4 |
| Schempp et al (1993)21 | Germany | ND | 0/5 | ND | 9/9 |
| Wienecke et al (1995)22 | Germany | ND | 4/18 | ND | 0/30 |
| Weide et al (2000)23 | Germany | ND | 3/53 | ND | 0/33 |
| Weber et al (1988)24 | Germany | ND | 0/2 | 2/2 | ND |
| Muhlemann et al (1986)8 | UK | ND | 0/22 | ND | ND |
| Lupoli et al (1991)9 | UK | ND | 0/31 | 0/9 | ND |
| Raguin et al (1992)25 | France | 0/14 (immunoperoxidase) | 0/15 | 0/10 | ND |
| Meiss et al (1993)26 | Holland | ND | 0/12 | 0/12 | 0/12 |
| Ranki et al (1994)27 | Finland | ND | 1/7 | ND | 0/7 |
| Alonso-Llamazares et al (1997)28 | Spain | ND | 1/9 | 0/6 | 0/6 |
| Trevisan et al (1996)29 | Italy | ND | 3/10 | ND | 6/10 |
| Buechner et al (1993)30 | Switzerland | ND | 10/10§ | ND | ND |
| Ozkan et al (2000)31 | Turkey | ND | ND | ND | 2/5 |
| Ross et al (1990)32 | Puerto Rico | 10/25 (silver stain) | ND | ND | ND |
| Fujiwara et al (1997)7‡ | Japan | ND | ND | ND | 2/5 |
| Fujiwara et al (1997)7‡ | USA | ND | ND | ND | 0/10 |
| Daoud et al (1994)33 | USA | 0/10 (silver stain) | 0/3 | ND | ND |
| Fan et al (1995)34 | USA | ND | ND | ND | 0/30 |
| Dillon et al (1995)35 | USA | ND | ND | ND | 0/20 |
| De Vito et al (1996)36 | USA | ND | ND | ND | 0/28 |
| Colome-Grimmer et al (1997)37 | USA | ND | ND | ND | 0/10 |
*Eleven of 39 cases in this study also showed an increased B burgdorferi induced proliferation of peripheral blood lymphocytes. †This represents the only positive culture where spirochaetes have been subtyped; in this instance PCR analysis confirmed B afzelii. ‡This study investigated patients from Germany, Japan, and USA; the results of each location are presented separately for clarity. §All patients in this study were selected on the basis of positive serology for borrelia infection; 7 of 7 tested also showed an increased B burgdorferi induced proliferation of peripheral blood lymphocytes. ND, not done; PCR, polymerase chain reaction.