Table 1.
Reports on patients with tick-borne encephalitis and co-infection with Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato a.
| Study Period Country | Number of Patients and Patients’ Characteristics | Proven Borrelial Co-Infection | Proven Borrelial CNS Co-Infection b | Possible Borrelial Co-Infection c | Proven and Possible Borrelial Co-Infection |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1992–1993 Slovenia [4] | 89 patients with TBE | 12 (13.5) | 6 (6.7) | / | / |
| 1994 Slovenia [5] | 492 patients with TBE | 82 (16.7) | 61/489 (12.5) | 60/484 (12.4) d | / |
| 1995–1996 Slovenia [6] | 36 patients with TBE out of 130 patients with acute febrile illness after a tick bite | 6 (16.7) | / | 3 (8.3) d | 9 (25) |
| 1999–2001 Russia [7] | 445 patients with TBE out of 1952 patients with acute febrile illness after a tick bite | / | / | 33 (7.4) e | / |
| 1995–2004 Slovenia [8] | 32 patients with TBE | / | 6 (18.8) f | 15 (46.9) g | / |
| 1993–2008 Poland [9] | 687 patients with TBE | / | 13 (1.9) | 116 (16.9) h | / |
| 2003–2009 Slovenia [10] | 11 patients with peripheral facial palsy out of 1218 patients with TBE | / | 1 (9.1) | 2 (18.2) d | 3 (27.3) |
| 2009–2012 Poland [11] | 110 patients with TBE | / | / | 30 (27) i | / |
| 2007–2012 Slovenia [12] | 717 patients with TBE | / | 22/661 (3.3) | 66/655 (10.1) g | / |
Data are n (%) or n/n (%). Abbreviations: CNS, central nervous system; TBE, tick-borne encephalitis; /, data not available. a PubMed literature search using the queries “tick-borne encephalitis AND Lyme” and “tick-borne encephalitis AND Borrelia” with no limits for year of publication and written in English. Case reports were not included. b Defining criteria for Lyme neuroborreliosis: isolation of B. burgdorferi s.l. from cerebrospinal fluid or intrathecal synthesis of IgG or IgM antibodies specific for B. burgdorferi s.l. c Defined by positive serologic test results. d Immunofluorescence assay detecting serum IgM and IgG antibodies. Titers of 1:256 were interpreted as positive. e enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) detecting serum IgM antibodies and immunofluorescence assay with corpuscular antigen Ip-21 strain B. afzelii for detection of serum IgG antibodies. f Chemiluminescence immunoassay (Liaison, Diasorin, Italy) or enzyme immunoassay (IDEIA, DakoCytomation, Denmark). g Chemiluminescence immunoassay (Liaison, Diasorin, Italy) detecting serum IgG. h ELISA (Abbot, USA and Biomedica, Austria until 2006, subsequently Virotech, Germany). i Borrelial co-infection evaluated using whole blood PCR for Borrelia species.