Possible relationship between degenerative cardiac valvular pathology and Lyme disease

We report an unusual clinical presentation of Lyme carditis in a previously healthy 20-year-old black woman without any epidemiologic history of Lyme disease, fulminant in nature, involving a heart valve necessitating emergent mitral valve replacement, and requiring further surgical intervention because of the development of pericardial effusion and tamponade. A dilated right ventricle with normal contractility and severe tricuspid regurgitation with increase in the right atrial size diagnosed later remains under close surveillance.