From all ive learned about lyme in the past months is that there is alot of controversy in the medical community about what constitutes a pos w.b. test for lyme. [E.X. igm, igg bands, which ones, ect.] Is there differences of opinion in tests for coinfection? I tested pos. for bart, mycoplasma, rocky mt.spotted fever and e.b.v. Some were pos in the igg and not igm and visa versa. Thanks for any input.
Posted by TheTruth (Member # 17100) on :
All of the testing is based on antibodies. That does not, in many cases, signify an active infection. Many of us have been vacinated for Hepatitis B, for example. An antibody test would reveal antibodies, but this is NOT indicative of infection. Likewise, the vast majority of people in the US will have antibodies for things like Chicken Pox. We may have been infected in the past, but in those cases our bodies have fought off the infection. We still have antibodies, but are not infected, and not symptomatic. Equating antibodies to an infectious agent, and an "active infection" is not always accurate.
Posted by Keebler (Member # 12673) on :
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My hands are just a wreck. So, rather than force typing, I'll post some places that offer better explanations than I could anyway.
Others with strong hands and sharp minds may be along to offer more concise answers for you.
If you are experiencing troubling symptoms, with or without positive testing, further evaluation may be in order. With late-stage lyme the IgG and IgM gets sort of switched from what one might normally expect.
CONTROVERSY CONTINUES TO FUEL THE "LYME WAR" By Virginia Savely, RN, FNP-C
*****
As two medical societies battle over its diagnosis and treatment, Lyme disease remains a frequently missed illness. Here is how to spot and treat it.
Excerpts:
" . . .To treat Lyme disease for a comparable number of life cycles, treatment would need to last 30 weeks. . . ."
`` . . .Patients with Lyme disease almost always have negative results on standard blood screening tests and have no remarkable findings on physical exam, so they are frequently referred to mental-health professionals for evaluation.
"...If all cases were detected and treated in the early stages of Lyme disease, the debate over the diagnosis and treatment of late-stage disease would not be an issue, and devastating rheumatologic, neurologic, and cardiac complications could be avoided..."
. . . * Clinicians do not realize that the CDC has gone on record as saying the commercial Lyme tests are designed for epidemiologic rather than diagnostic purposes, and a diagnosis should be based on clinical presentation rather than serologic results.
- FULL ARTICLE AT LINK ABOVE.
Co-infections (other tick-borne infections or TBD - tick-borne disease) are not discussed in the Savely article due to space limits. Still, any LLMD you would see would know how to assess/treat if others are present.
===================== =====================
`` . . . the immune system does not begin to repair itself until the beginning of the fourth month of antibiotic treatment. . . . ``
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal today announced that his antitrust investigation has uncovered serious flaws in the Infectious Diseases Society of America's (IDSA) process for writing its 2006 Lyme disease guidelines and the IDSA has agreed to reassess them with the assistance of an outside arbiter.
The International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) provides a forum for health science professionals to share their wealth of knowledge regarding the management of Lyme and associated diseases.
- 2/3 down the page, you can download Guidelines for the management of Lyme disease
Truth is correct that antibodies for viruses can remain elevated for a long time without an active infection.
However, tickborne illnesses are another ballgame. It is possible I suppose if your immune system was very very strong that one could contract RMSF, Bart or mycoplasma without becoming either acutely ill or chronically ill.
However, due to the nature of these infections, and especially Bart which suppresses the immune system, it would be highly unlikely that all these would be false positives.
It would be more normal to actually have one or more of these infections with a negative antibody test result. Especially if you have been ill a long time.
This is why tickborne illnesses are often clinical diagnoses -- the antibody tests just aren't that good.
If you had lots of money you could always do PCR tests which are considered evidence of active infection, but with these tests your odds are very low of getting a positive test because there are multiple strains of many bugs and some of them may not be readily detected in the blood. They could be hiding in the tissues for example.
One other testing option is the bloodslide from Fry Lab. Not too terribly expensive at $295 I think.