Is there any Lyme / Thyroid connection - medical research

My Lyme care is covered under Worker's Comp. If I can come up with some medical research that states there is a connection my biopsy of my thyroid will be covered. Anyone know of any research?

If / when I find any I will post here.

Thanks!

Hope these help:

1.) American Society for Microbiology
Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis Agent Infection in a Pony Vaccinated with a Borrelia burgdorferi Recombinant OspA Vaccine and Challenged by Exposure to Naturally Infected Ticks
http://cvi.asm.org/cgi/content/full/7/1/68 - search 'Thyroid" under "Pathology and Histopathology"

2.) PubMed Central
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=2722197
also Oxford Journals:
http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/nem138
Excerpts: "The western blot assay is more reliable since the cross-reactive antibodies .... and five matched with B. burgdorferi and thyroid stimulating hormone receptor ..... Antibodies against Borrelia-specific antigens and their cross-reactive ..."

3.) NCBI - PubMed Central
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15671776?dopt=Abstract
Homologies between proteins of Borrelia burgdorferi and thyroid autoantigens.
Benvenga, S., F. Guarneri, M. Vaccaro, L. Santarpia, and F. Trimarchi. 2004. Homologies between proteins of Borrelia burgdorferi and thyroid autoantigens. Thyroid 14:964-966

4.) NCBI - PubMed Central
"Human thyroid autoantigens and proteins of Yersinia and Borrelia share amino acid sequence homology that includes binding motifs to HLA-DR molecules and T-cell receptor."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16571084
Excerpt: "We previously reported that the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi could trigger autoimmune thyroid diseases (AITD). Subsequently, we showed local amino acid sequence homology between all human thyroid autoantigens (human thyrotropin receptor [hTSH-R], human thyroglobulin [hTg], human thyroperoxidase [hTPO], human sodium iodide symporter [hNIS]) and Borrelia proteins (n = 6,606)"

5.) http://www.liebertpub.com - Official Journal of the American Thyroid Association
Association of lichen sclerosus and autoimmune thyroiditis: possible role of Borrelia burgdorferi? 2002: Vaccaro Mario; Guarneri Fabrizio; Borgia Francesco; Cannavò Serafinella P; Benvenga Salvatore
Thyroid : official journal of the American Thyroid Association 2002;12(12):1147-8.

Blessings,
Sojourner