Posted by iforgotmypassword on November 29, 2005, at 15:49:49
one of my three tests at igenex for lyme came out positive. it was the Western Blot IgM that was positive, 23-25 band was positive at 2/4 intensity, 31 was positive at 3/4 intensity, and 41 was present at 1/4 intensity. 34 and 39 were negative (being IND, indeterminate, present but under the 1/4 intesity threshold, so i gather that means clinically means nothing)
they declare a positive for IgM if two bands are present, so my 3 was sufficient, yet i still came out as negative on the the IgG and the Whole Blood PCR.
so what does this all mean... they seem to imply that chronic lyme infections may not be easily detected with IgG, and that IgM may work.
"Of patients with acute culture proven Lyme disease, 20-30% remain seronegative on serial Western Blot sampling. Antibody titers also appear to decline over time; thus, the IgG Western Blot is even less sensitive in detecting chronic Lyme infection yet the IgM Western Blot may work."
( www.ilads.org/basic.html )and my 31 band seems quite positive, and i have never recieved a lyme vaccine, which they seem to indicate may mean something:
"For "epidemiological purposes" the CDC eliminated from the Western Blot analysis the reading of bands 31 and 34. These bands are so specific to Borrelia burgdorferi that they have been chosen for vaccine development. However, for patients not vaccinated for Lyme, a positive 31 or 34 band is highly indicative of Borrelia burgdorferi exposure."
However still, while I have heard absolutely nothing negative with Igenex, their western blot is supposed to be very sensitive compared with other tests, meaning the bands i showed as having present would have presumably not have been enough to consider the test a positive in a test from another company. Or so I'm guessing... I have no idea. :( I still did not get a postive on the PCR, but the lady at Igenex said that can easily happen as often times bacteria (or bacteria fragments?) aren't present in the specific blood or fluid sample, but would be in another... I guess its one of those things they use that if you test positive, Lyme is almost guaranteed?
anyways, i'm not sure what this all means, and what to do now? is this a real likely positive or is it pretty negligible. should i be doing more testing?
lyme would be a pretty good explanation (presumably) for why i can have extrapyramidal like (practically parkinsonian) symptoms just spontaneously without even having taken an SSRI in the past year or an antipsychotic or more than a week of my life who knows how long ago. its the only condition where they describe it so concretely. and god my cognitive trouble is crippling and no doctor ever understands... if lymes cryptic symptoms are the reason and its (hopefully) treatable, it would be a godsend.
poster:iforgotmypassword
thread:583392
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051126/msgs/583392.html