Percent positive rate of Lyme real-time polymerase chain reaction in blood, cerebrospinal fluid, synovial fluid, and tissue

We performed a retrospective review of 23,777 specimens tested by our Lyme real-time polymerase chain reaction assay to determine the percent positive rates by specimen source. The percent positive rates were highest in synovial fluid (6.4%) and tissue (6.5%), and lowest in blood (0.1%) and cerebrospinal fluid (0.09%). (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.