Symptoms of Lyme disease (lime-borreliosis)

Lyme disease has an incubation period that lasts 5-30 days, more often 10-14 days.

There is no single classification of Lyme disease. The most common clinical classification.

Clinical classification of Lyme disease

Flow	Stage	Degree of severity
Subclinical	-	-
Acute	Early localized infection Early disseminated infection	Light Moderate Gravity Heavy
Chronic	Remission Exacerbation	-

The most frequent option is the subclinical course of Lyme disease. The fact of infection is confirmed by the growth of the titer of specific antibodies in paired sera.

The acute course (from several weeks to 6 months) includes two consecutive stages - an early localized infection and an early disseminated infection.

The chronic form of the disease can last for life.

Clinical manifestations of Lyme disease at different stages of the infectious process

Defeat of organs and systems	Early localized infection	Early disseminated infection	Chronic infection
Common infectious manifestations	The flu-like syndrome	Weakness, malaise	Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Lymphatic system	Regional lymphadenitis	Generalized lymphadenopathy	-
Leather	Migrating erythema	Secondary erythema and exanthema	Benign skin lymphocytoma; chronic atrophic acrodermatitis
Cardiovascular system	-	Atrioventricular block; myocarditis	-
Nervous system		Meningitis: meningoencephalitis, neuritis of the cranial nerves, radiculoneuritis; Bunwart's syndrome	Encephalomyelitis; radiculopathy; cerebral vasculitis
Musculoskeletal system	Myalgia	Migrating pains in bones, joints, muscles; first attacks of arthritis	Chronic polyarthritis

[1], [2], [3], [4], [5]

Symptoms of Lyme disease in the stage of an early localized infection

The onset of the disease is acute or subacute. The first symptoms of Lyme disease are nonspecific: fatigue, chills, fever, fever, headache, dizziness, weakness, aching muscles, pain in the bones and joints. Often against the background of intoxication, there are catarrhal phenomena (perspiration in the throat, dry cough, etc.), which are the cause of diagnostic errors.

The main manifestation of the early localized stage of Lyme disease is the migrating erythema at the site of the tick bite. Within a few days, the area of redness expands (migrates) in all directions. Other symptoms of Lyme disease in the acute period are changeable and transitory. Perhaps urticaria rash, small, transient red dot and ring-shaped rashes and conjunctivitis. One-third of patients notice an increase in lymph nodes. Close to the entrance gate of the infection.

In some patients, erythema is absent, then in the clinical picture only fever and a general infectious syndrome are observed.

The outcome of stage I can be a complete recovery, the probability of which: significantly increases with adequate antibiotic therapy. Otherwise, even with the normalization of temperature and the disappearance of erythema, the disease passes into the stage of disseminated infection.

Symptoms of Lyme disease in the stage of early disseminated infection

It develops in a few weeks or months after the end of the stage of an early localized infection. Hematogenous infection is most often accompanied by changes in the nervous and cardiovascular system, skin. The defeat of the nervous system usually occurs at the 4-10th week of the disease and is expressed in the development of neuritis of the cranial nerves. Meningitis, radiculoneuritis, lymphocytic meningo-radiculoneuritis (Bannwarth syndrome). Bannwarth's syndrome is a variant of neuroborreliosis common in Western Europe. He is characterized by a lingering course, pronounced radicular (predominantly nocturnal) pain, lymphocytic pleocytosis in the cerebrospinal fluid.

Lesions of the heart for lime-borreliosis are quite diverse: they are conduction disorders (for example, atrioventricular blockage - from the 1st degree to the complete transverse blockade), rhythm, myocarditis, pericarditis.

During this period, the patient has transient multiple erythematous skin rashes. Less common are parotitis, eye lesions (conjunctivitis, iritis, choroiditis, retinitis, panophthalmitis), respiratory organs (pharyngitis, tracheobronchitis), genitourinary system (orchitis, etc.).

Symptoms of Lyme disease in the stage of chronic infection

The chronic course has the following symptoms of Lyme disease - a primary lesion of the joints, skin and nervous system.

Usually, patients experience progressive arthralgia, followed by chronic polyarthritis. In most patients, relapses of arthritis have been observed for several years.

In some cases, a chronic infection occurs in the form of benign skin lymphocytoma and chronic atrophic acrodermatitis. Benign lymphocytoma of the skin is characterized by nodular elements. Tumors or vaguely delimited infiltrates. Chronic atrophic acrodermatitis is characterized by skin atrophy, which develops after the previous inflammatory-infiltrative stage.

With chronic infection, disorders from the nervous system develop in the interval from one year to ten years after the onset of the disease. Late lesions of the nervous system include chronic encephalomyelitis, polyneuropathy, spastic paraparesis, ataxia, chronic axonal radiculopathy, memory disorders and dementia.

The chronic course of Lyme disease is characterized by alternating periods of remissions and exacerbations, after which other organs and systems are involved in the infectious process.