PITTSBURGH — The difficulty of diagnosing early acute Lyme disease makes things doubly frustrating for Pennsylvanians, who live in a state that has consistently ranked highest in the nation for Lyme cases.
“It’s clear we have a tick problem in western Pennsylvania and many of those ticks carry Lyme disease and other potential pathogens,” explained Infectious Disease Doctor, Amesh Adalja.
Lyme Disease is difficult to diagnose with some symptoms very similar to the flu. It can cause fever, fatigue, joint and muscle aches, inflammation and ever paralysis. But with early diagnosis patients can avoid severe problems.
But Seattle-based Adaptive Technologies is working with clinical researchers across the country — including in the Pittsburgh area — to run trials for a test that could better identify Lyme disease using a technology similar to that of their covid-19 test.
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Adaptive’s first T-cell-based test, T-Detect Covid, was granted emergency use authorization by the FDA to confirm covid infections during the pandemic.
Through the ImmuneSense Lyme Study, Adaptive is working with researchers like Dr. Shari Rozen in Pittsburgh to recruit people with recent tick bites who may be exhibiting the classic bullseye rash.
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Analysis of the study’s data will lead to an ultimate determination about the efficacy of the test, and participants’ health will be tracked for a full year.
If the trials are successful, officials hope to make it clinically and commercially available to diagnose patients.
Anyone presenting with a bullseye rash can enroll at ImmuneSenseStudy.com. Participants receive $100 for each study visit, up to $400.
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