May is Lyme Disease Awareness month, and in a report published by Govil et al in Pathogens, a group of rheumatologists and an immunologist provide an overview of neurologic manifestations of Lyme disease that should trigger a referral to a neurologist and/or further laboratory testing. Key symptoms include headache, cognitive issues, fatigue, pain in the neck or mid/lower back, and numbness; signs rheumatologists should look for also include facial weakness, stiff neck, and radicular sensory and motor deficits.
In a companion press release from Rutgers released in tandem with the Pathogens paper Steven Schutzer, MD, a Lyme disease expert based at Rutgers University, and Swati Govil, DO, a fellow at Rutgers—coauthors on the report—also discuss symptoms of Lyme disease and the role of rheumatologists in diagnosing the condition and offer advice to primary care physicians on the treatment of Lyme disease.