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Lars Jonsson, MD; Göran Stiernstedt, MD, PhD; Lars Thomander, MD, PhD

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 1987;113(3):303-306.

Abstract
• An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was applied to serum samples of 94 patients diagnosed as having Bell's palsy: they were studied throughout two consecutive years in an attempt to establish serologic evidence of a tick-borne spirochetal infection. A strain of Borrelia spirochetes, isolated from Swedish Ixodes ricinus ticks, was used as an antigen, and separate estimations of spirochetal IgG and IgM antibodies were made; serum samples with titers above the 95th-percentile level of 120 healthy individuals were considered positive. Thirteen percent of the patients' serum samples were IgG-positive, 3% were positive for IgM, and 3% were positive for both IgG and IgM. A twofold or greater increase of IgG titers was found in 6%. All the patients who were seropositive experienced the onset of palsy during the period from July to December.

(Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 1987;113:303-306)

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Otolaryngology, Uppsala (Sweden) University Akademiska Sjukhuset (Drs Jonsson and Thomander), and the Departments of Infectious Diseases and Clinical Bacteriology, Karolinska Institutet, Danderyd (Sweden) Hospital (Dr Stiernstedt).

Footnotes
Accepted for publication Oct 22, 1986.

Reprint requests to the Department of Otolaryngology, Uppsala University Akademiska Sjukhuset, S-751 85 Uppsala, Sweden (Dr Jonsson).

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