Lack of Antibodies toBorrelia burgdorferiin Patients with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

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Abstract
To the Editor: Several patients with classic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) were recently reported to have elevated antibody titers to Borrelia burgdorferi.1 In one case, the disease apparently stabilized after antibiotic therapy. On the basis of this report, which was carried on television nationally, a number of patients with ALS hoped that they might have Lyme neuroborreliosis, a potentially curable illness, rather than ALS.Therefore, we analyzed serum samples from all 41 current patients and from 30 former patients with ALS followed at the New England Medical Center Neuromuscular Research Unit,2 many of whom live in areas in which . . .