Hepatitis associated with Lyme disease.

Lyme borreliosis is an important clinical illness, the incidence of which has increased gready during the previous decade.! Nationally the disease has been documented in 46 states with a 16-fold increase in reported cases since 1982.2 Lyme disease is named after the town of Old Lyme, Connecticut, from which the first cases reported in the United States were found. 3 Our service area in Connecticut remains an area of high occurrence for Lyme disease.4 Lyme disease is caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi, which is spread to humans by a tick vector, primarily Ixodes damminii. It is a multisystem illness potentially involving the skin, heart, joints, and central nervous system.5 The eyes, lymphatics, respiratory system, and genitourinary system can also be involved.6 Involvement of the liver is also known to occur.5,6 We report a case of early disseminated Lyme disease in which hepatocellular dysfunction was discovered. This subclinical hepatitis resolved completely after appropriate treatment with oral antibiotics.