Interstital Cystitis and Lyme- preliminay report

I would like to comment briefly about this disorder and its potential relationship to Lyme disease. I have been treating at least one patient who has reported an excellent response to treatment. Willie burdorferf, the microbiologist who discovered the Lyme spirochete reported in 1988 that Borrelia burdorferi, the bacteria which bears his name was found consistently in the urinary bladders of mice.
A great deal of research has supported the notion that Bb widely disseminates into many organs. The co-existence of urinary tract disorders in patients with Lyme disease is well documented. There is evidence that Lyme has been found in stomach, colon and gallbladder biopsy samples. To the best of My knowledge no studies have been undertaken to examine bladder tissue samples for the presence of Lyme. At least one study has demonstrated positive Lyme PCR in genital secretions. This may represent contamination from the urinary tract. PCR tests for genitourinary STDs, Chlamydia and gonorrhea, from urine samples have existed for years(this demonstrates that urine contamination from other sources is frequently present). Positive Lyme PCRs have been obtained from urine specimens. Overall, a body of evidence suggests that Lyme can- may reside in the urinary bladder.

Interstitial cystitis is a fairly common disorder. It occurs more commonly in women. It's name is derived from the minimal pathological changes seen in bladder biopsies.
It is associated with symptoms which at times are crippling. Such symptoms may include: pain in various locations, frequency, pelvic pain, bloating and other related symptoms. IC(interstitial cystitis) patients are thought to have a higher incidence of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
The standard thinking is that the cause is unknown; although it is said not be due to infection and not respond to antibiotics.

These symptoms overlap with several other disorders: chronic pelvic pain of unknown cause, chronic prostatis or prostatosis in men and chronic urethral or para-urethral syndrome seen in women.

Standard urinary tract infections are caused by bacteria that normally live in the colon. Examples include: E. coli and enterococcus. These are classic gram negative and gram positive bacteria. They can be easily grown in standard culture medium. standard antibiotics only treat gram negative bacteria- such as Bactrim.

Lyme is very difficult to grow in culture media, even by expert hands. And- if it is found only in the bladder wall, such cultures will be useless.
Other L-form bacteria have also been implicated in these syndromes, including: Chlamydia and Mycoplasm species. These too are very difficult to culture.

Physicians typically prescribe antibiotics for 7 to 14 days for urinary tract infections. Experience with Lyme disease shows that short courses of antibiotics are not effective. Only in prostate infections have longer courses of antibiotics been used. Physicians are aware of the prostate-blood barrier and bacterial sequestration within the gland. Antibiotic courses up to 90 days have been used- with some success and frequent relapse.

My patient has established IC. She also tests positive for LD by Western Blot and has a variety of other symptom commonly associated with Lyme disease. She had been miserable for two years with a horrendous quality of life. Experts in IC had been unable to help her.

She has been treated with the usual Lyme antibiotic combinations. The combination of Biaxin with Plaquenil was incredibly effective for the IC symptoms and life altering.

My thoughts are that IC and related conditions are caused by L-form infection of perhaps Bb and other L-form bacteria. Biaxin is not an antibiotic used for urinary tract infections in the typical sense. Minocin has also shown some promise. Cipro has been used for both Lyme and urinary tract infections, but I have noticed a very significant "bladder herx" when patients have been treated with it. Perhaps it can be tolerated later in the course of therapy.

I have seen evidence that IC and related syndromes respond to antibiotics. Long term antibiotics are required- patients need to realized that symptoms will not improve over-night.

Lyme disease should be considered in these patients. This is a work in progress. I cannot claim a lot of experience here. However- my patient has reported that other IC patients, with whom she communicates, have also experienced improvement with the combination of Biaxin and Plaquenil.