LymeNet Flash: helping to understand the PCR DNA test

This is topic helping to understand the PCR DNA test in forum Medical Questions at LymeNet Flash.

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Posted by LSG Scott (Member # 21624) on :

people have asked me about the pcr dna test i had and wanted to know about it,
so here is the best explanation i could come up with, i hope it makes sense to you guys out here.

it is a tricky test, if it is comes back pos. it is 100% accurate if it comes back neg. it could be wrong.

that's because it's not a reactive anti body test

it actually looks for the Lyme bacteria in your blood, and if you draw a blood sample that doesn't happen to have it, then it will come back Negative, but you could still have Lyme.

what i mean is, the test works like this.

think of your body as a lake down the street, now take a fishing poll down there and cast 1 time and reel it in slowly,

if you get lucky on that 1 cast, you will hook a fish and it will prove 100% that there is Fish in the Lake,

but if you don't hook a fish on that one cast it doesn't mean a whole lot, IE.no fish in the pond, there could be a whole bunch of fish on the other side of the lake

it is a great test but does have a lot of false negatives.

i was very ill and this test was how i was able to get treatment and shut up the Lyme naysayers.

I guess the sicker you are, the more fish i mean Lyme you have swimming around in your lake i mean Body. [Smile]

Posted by vrtualchik (Member # 27927) on :

Great explaination LSG Scott!

I had a positive PCR on both a whole blood and a serum blood test. I researched for a long time after getting these results back because I wasn't sure if there was any was the positive could have been caused by anything else.

Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :

yep... you got it

Tincup used to use the analogy of ping pong balls in a swimming pool.

She's kinda weird though. [Big Grin]

Posted by LSG Scott (Member # 21624) on :

that's funny Lymtoo but why would you have ping pong balls in a swimming pool?

i don't think that is a great example because you wouldn't expect ping pong balls in a pool.

but you would expect fish in a lake and you would expect Lyme in someones body if they had 2 dozen Lyme symptoms.

maybe i'm just reading to much into it. 4)

Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :

She threw them in there!! [Big Grin]

--Where's Tinny when you need her!??