Alexis Lacout1*, Marie Mas2, Pierre Yves Marcy3, Christian Perronne4
1Centre de diagnostic ELSAN, Centre Médico–Chirurgical, 83 avenue Charles de Gaulle, 15000, Aurillac, France
2Clinique Convert, Médecine Générale, Service des Urgences, 62 avenue de Jasseron, 01000, Bourg en Bresse, France
3Polyclinique Les Fleurs Service Imagerie Médicale, 332 Avenue Frederic Mistral, 83190, Ollioules, France
4Hôpital Universitaire Raymond Poincaré (Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris), Département d’Infectiologie. Université de Versailles – Saint Quentin, Paris-Saclay
*Corresponding Author: Alexis Lacout, Centre de diagnostic ELSAN, Centre Médico–Chirurgical, 83 avenue Charles de Gaulle, 15000, Aurillac, France
Received: 28 December 2020; Accepted: 07 January 2021; Published: 15 January 2021
We report therein the onset of three chronic diseases: Behçet's disease, fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis in three sisters after tick bites. Only Behcet's disease was treated in our department. After failure of the initial treatment including colchicine and corticoids, the patient recovered within a prolonged antibiotic therapy time period of 18 months.
A 23-year-old female patient was admitted to hospital in the Infectious Diseases Department as she presented with headache, diffuse inflammatory arthromyalgia, abdominal pain and cutaneous folliculitis, and for the umpteenth time for several past years, meningeal syndrome recurrence. The physical examination was unremarkable. The biological test assessment was normal, as were the ophthalmological and cerebral MRI examinations. The patient’s HLA B5 test was negative. The upper digestive fibroscopy shown digestive ulcerations.
The diagnosis of Behçet's disease was made on the following: inflammatory arthralgias, digestive ulcerations, folliculitis lesions; recurrent bipolar aphthosis was found at patient’s interview. The patient was given prednisone 0.5 mg/kg/day and colchicine 1 mg/day. The evolution was characterized by an initial improvement of clinical symptoms followed by further iterative recurrence as soon as the corticosteroid doses were reduced. Upon resuming the interview with the patient’ s mother, clinical symptoms began at the age of 9 years old by the occurrence of a voluminous cutaneous erythema following multiple tick bites. One month later the patient presented with subacute lymphocytic meningitis, which was treated as tuberculosis meningitis without relevant bacteriological evidence.
On the same day, the patient's two sisters were also bitten by ticks. A few weeks later on, one of them developed osteomyelitis of the tibia, which was operated on. The bacteriological examination result was negative, the histological ex
Tick; Auto-immune disease; Behçet’s disease; Antibiotic; Hydroxychloroquine
Tick articles; Auto-immune disease articles; Beh?et?s disease articles; Antibiotic articles; Hydroxychloroquine articles
The appearance of chronic clinical syndromes and certain autoimmune diseases occurring after tick bites raises the problem of a possible link between infectious inoculation diseases and autoimmune diseases [2]. Thus, the role of certain tick-borne microorganisms such as Borrelia, Babesia, Bartonella, Ehrlichia and Anaplasma [2-5] has been discussed in the initiation of certain autoimmune diseases such as Behçet's disease, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia [6-8].
In addition, several microorganisms such as streptococci, Mycoplasma and herpes viruses have been implicated in the pathogenesis of Behcet's disease [9-11]; and disease’s significant improvements after antistreptococcal treatment have also been reported [9,12].
This observation underlines the emergence of autoimmune diseases in three sisters within the same family that may be suggestive of a genetic predisposition.
Tick bites seem to be a possible trigger of some autoimmune diseases by the transmission of microorganisms. The development of adequate microbiological tools (serologies, PCR) is necessary to evaluate the potential infectious part in autoimmune diseases compared to the genetic part and thus to improve the management of these diseases.
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