Is it pretty much a given that you'll test "positive" for Lyme while on abx? My results, before taking abx, were "negative", but a couple bands were suggestive. I've now been on abx for almost 2 1/2 months, so if I were to get tested now, if I did truly have Lyme, would I test positive?
Posted by mag (Member # 8920) on :
hi pat just set this on another post may help you
from dr c in missouri regarding testing
"Sometimes multiple antibiotics have to be tried before the patient feels better. Antibiotics may actually help with the laboratory diagnosis. But patients need to be off antibiotics about 10 to 14 days before the Western blot is repeated. This sounds like a contradiction. Antibiotics may help convert the test to positive, but patients need to be off antibiotics when the specimen is drawn.
It is well documented in medical literature that the presence of antibiotics may cause false negative borreliosis testing. Therefore, your system should be free of all antibiotics for an accurate blot result.
When the Lyme borrelia are alive, they are geniuses at avoiding the immune system. They may do things like go inside your white blood cells, and come out enclosed by the cell membrane of your own white blood cells! This may partly explain why antibodies against Borrelia burgdorferi are often not found when patients are tested.
What may happen when patients are given 4 weeks of tetracycline (or other antibiotics) is that some of the bacteria die. When Borrelia burgdorferi dies, it is less efficient at avoiding the immune system. That's when antibodies may be formed against Borrelia burgdorferi, converting the negative or equivocal Western blot to positive, in about 36% of cases. "
get better mags
Posted by SForsgren (Member # 7686) on :
I think that is totally debated. My doctor has not once stopped ABX treatment in over a year and has done at least 4-5 Western Blots. So not all LLMDs would agree.