"Caution must be used in supporting a diagnosis of B.burgdorferi infection when sera are Western Blot IgM
positive and Western Blot IgG negative after the initial 4 week period from onset. Because the likelihood of a
false-positive test result is high for these individuals, a positive IgM test alone is not reccommended for use in
determining active disease in persons with illness of longer than 1 month."
My symptoms are: fatigue, joint pain with mild swelling, headache, sore throat with sporadic laryngitis, memory and
speech problems, comprehension & retention problems, lousy co-ordination and a very poor sense of balance with
gait abnormality. I developed A-fib during my abx treatment. It keeps showing up.
Primary feels it's Lyme and is sending me back to Dr.K, the ID dr who treated me initially. I'm afraid he'll say it's
not Lyme. I don't know what the comment on IgM really means. Does anybody understand this?
Geri -
Posted by Pinelady (Member # 18524) on :
The comment sounds like it came directly from the
IDSA and CDC. A lab is not in the business to treat
and I would hang on to that one. I think all
symptoms considered you need treatment. They cannot
have proof of false positives if they have no
proof of chronic Lyme. Or it is all in their
heads. See what I mean. It contradicts everything we know about Lyme.
Posted by timaca (Member # 6911) on :
EBV can cause a false positive IgM lyme WB. So, have the ID doctor check you for EBV (which can cause the same symptoms as lyme). Also, don't rule out lyme (because of your positive lab tests) but know that other pathogens can be causing your problems.
Timaca
Posted by Gerifrog (Member # 17990) on :
- What's EBV?
Geri -
Posted by tickssuck (Member # 15388) on :
EBV = Epstein Barr Virus. I'm sure if you do a search you'll find lots of info. TS
Posted by disturbedme (Member # 12346) on :
If you had a positive ELISA, that's Lyme... no doubt about it.
Posted by Snailhead (Member # 18091) on :
I have a question: how can EBV imitate the lyme antibodies? Do you know which bands specifically can actually be EBV and not lyme, or is it all? For example, if you show a 23-25IGm (which is supposedly lyme specific) can that actually be EBV and NOT lyme???????
Posted by timaca (Member # 6911) on :
I never had mono either. And I ended up with chronic EBV infection, along with HHV-6, enterovirus and Cpn infection.
If you don't seroconvert to IgG (meaning don't end up with positive bands on the IgG --besides band 41) then it is more likely that you don't have lyme...that it could be a virus.
Best, Timaca
Posted by timaca (Member # 6911) on :