About Modeling Long-Term Cardiac Manifestations of Lyme Disease
We read with interest the recently published paper by Szymanska et al entitled "History of Lyme Disease as a Predictor of Atrial Fibrillation." 1 We commend the authors for their novel exploration of potential long-term sequelae of Lyme disease, namely the hypothesis that a history of low-grade myocarditis secondary to Borrelia infection may predispose to the development of atrial fibrillation (AF). This study compared 113 patients with AF to 109 patients without AF from a convenience sample of routine ambulatory care patients treated in 1 outpatient cardiology clinic. The authors concluded that positive results for anti-Borrelia IgG antibodies were a strong independent predictor for AF (odds ratio 8.21; 95% confidence interval 3.08 to 21.88; p <0.0001).