Can Lyme cause positive ANA/RA??

Hi all,

My mom has been suffering for well over a year now, spiking fevers sometime, low temps others, pain in joints, sweats, chronic sinus infections, sed rates up, the works!
She has seen rheumotologists (sp?), infectious disease specialists, etc. She has had full workups done, and been treated for everything from Lupus, to RA, to Shogrins, nothing works
She keeps asking about Lyme, but no doctor wants to take her down that path. She had one negative bloodtest for Lyme.
Her ANA and RA are both very positive, so every doc wants to tell her it's autoimmune, but none of the various autoimmune therapies are working.

She is trying to find a doc that will seriously look at Lyme, but is wondering is she is on the wrong path. Is it possible for Lyme to cause elevated ANA/RAs???

thanks in advance,

frustrated in pa

My entire family has lyme disease and we live in PA too! My 5 year old son and my husband both had elevated ANA's from lyme. With treatment, my son's has returned to normal and we have not yet tested my husband's again.

The lab manager at the lab I had these tests done confirmed that a lot of lyme patients have elevated ANA levels.

Hope this helps. To me, lyme is the FIRST place I would look rather than lupus, etc. It is much more common!

tickbattler