Vineyarders are no strangers to Lyme disease. Nor are Islanders strangers to the current testing method — which can involve waiting up to two weeks — which sometimes falsely comes back as negative in the disease’s key early stages.
But a new peer-reviewed study in the Nature Communications journal describes a new test, which has demonstrated more than 95 percent accuracy, and could return results in under 20 minutes.
The test is not currently available to the general public. However, the study shows a method that, if approved and widely produced, could be a valuable tool for doctors in coming years.
This rapid test uses an artificial intelligence–based model to interpret samples, and was able to positively identify 95.5 percent of samples with Lyme disease, and rule out 100 percent of samples without the disease.
Researchers noted that the new test improves upon several commonly recognized problems with the current testing method. These include longer turnaround times, underreporting of cases, and a general failure to detect Lyme in early stages, before bacteria spreads in the body.
If the disease is not caught early, it can cause neurological, cardiac, or rheumatoid damage.
“With over 3.4 million [Lyme disease] tests conducted each year,” the study argues, “there is a critical need for a single-tier test that can facilitate rapid diagnosis and treatment.”
