This was on tonight. It's a re-enactment medical show. The patient went to the emergency
room, with fever, eye pain, and leg weakness. After she said she was in Connecticut three
months ago, the doctor rules out "Lymes" because she doesn't recall a tick bite or rash. He does
an MRI, sees lesions, and diagnoses her with MS. Then, she goes downhill after getting
steroids, so he questions the MS diagnosis. He then diagnoses her with syphilis, but then
realizes she can't have that after her husband tests negative. So then he goes against the
rules and does a test he's not allowed to do, to test directly for the Lyme bacteria. She tests
positive for this, and he is a hero, especially since "Lymes" is so easy to treat and can be
easily "cured."
Posted by Leelee (Member # 19112) on :
Hopefully some good will come out of this program.
Thanks for posting.
Posted by mtree (Member # 14305) on :
"Lymes"....I just go when I hear that...
mtree
Posted by wtl (Member # 19883) on :
I didn't know they could "rule out" Lyme based on patients report of a tick bite, or lack of. That's crazy.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
Yeah, I saw it the other day.
They've had a good one on before ( with our beloved member Wild Condor ) and called it LYME then.
This one drove me nuts with their LYMES thing.
Hey, what test were they talking about that they used?? I had never heard of it.
Posted by ZachE84 (Member # 21442) on :
I saw it also and was wondering what test directly checks for the bacteria instead of the antibodies. The show didn't make sense in response to all I've read about Lyme disease.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
and the test was very "expensive" they said. I taped the show .. so may have to go back and see what they called it.
I was hoping someone here would remember.
Posted by Tiramisu (Member # 15082) on :
I get mad every time I see that episode. He says it like she should be glad it is only Lyme.
Also says it is not debilitating or progressive. I wonder how that woman is doing now...anyone know?
That episode should be yanked! BTW, it was a BAC test or BAT test.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
quote:Originally posted by Tiramisu:
That episode should be yanked! BTW, it was a BAC test or BAT test.
Yes, that was it! I think it sounded like "BAT" but who knows?
yeah, they acted like she would be just fine and dandy now.
Posted by Skyler (Member # 11549) on :
wow...
Posted by nenet (Member # 13174) on :
What a load of malarkey (the show episode being discussed, I mean).
Also, this show was likely referring the Borreliacidal Antibody Test, or BAT.
"Ability of the Borreliacidal Antibody Test To Confirm Lyme Disease in Clinical Practice"
"Highly specific borreliacidal antibodies are induced by infection with Borrelia burgdorferi, and a borreliacidal antibody test (BAT) may be an accurate laboratory procedure for confirming Lyme disease in clinical practice. To investigate this, 34 Lyme disease sera and 34 sera from patients with other illnesses who had presented to a primary-care facility located in an area of borreliosis endemicity were tested by the BAT and Western blotting (WB).
The BAT was more sensitive (79% versus 65%; P = 0.090), especially in cases in which patients had a single erythema migrans lesion (P = 0.021). In addition, the potentially cross-reactive sera were negative by the BAT but WB yielded three (9%) false-positive results.
The results from 104 sera from possible Lyme disease patients demonstrated the clinical usefulness of the more sensitive and specific BAT. The BAT was positive for 40 (38%) sera from patients with Lyme disease-related symptoms and appropriate clinical and epidemiological findings.
WB confirmed Lyme disease in 30 (75%) of the 40 BAT-positive patients but failed to detect B. burgdorferi infection in 10 BAT-positive patients. WB was also positive for 11 BAT-negative sera, but six (55%) patients had case histories which suggested that the results were false positives.
Collectively, the results confirm that the BAT is a sensitive and highly specific test and suggest that widespread use would increase the accuracy of serodiagnostic confirmation of Lyme disease."
Personally, I highly doubt it's very good, or that much better than a WB, if we haven't been hearing about it for this long.
This study is pretty meaningless to me, since they didn't test against DNA-positive cases, and NO controls. They just tested *possible Lyme patients*, and then "patients with other illnesses" (were they screened via PCR for possible missed Lyme? No.). I mean, what kind of a study IS that? Kinda pointless, IMHO.
Posted by nenet (Member # 13174) on :
Oh, and the BAT is not a direct Lyme test.
It is just another antibody test, like the WB or ELISA, so still subject to all of the same weak points of Lyme antibody testing.
![[loco]](graemlins/loco.gif)
when I hear that...![[toilet]](graemlins/toilet.gif)
mtree