Website says they test for 28 species of babesia. Does anyone have the list of the species?
Bea Seibert
Posted by hadlyme (Member # 6364) on :
Bea, call the lab. They can and will answer questions. It's in AZ which is on pacific time right now. 480.292.8560
You can email them too, [email protected] They could fax or email you a list.
Posted by hadlyme (Member # 6364) on :
Tell them the urgency of your wanting to know. Ask to talk to Jeremy Ellis, the manager of the lab.
Posted by Lymetoo (Member # 743) on :
I've met Jeremy. He's awesome!
Posted by BoxerMom (Member # 25251) on :
I was positive for B.microti on the Fry Labs Babesia FISH test. My blood smear did NOT show obvious rings or crosses.
My husband was negative for B.microti on the Fry Labs FISH test. His blood smear was FULL of ring forms. It was the worst smear our LL doc had ever seen.
My husband has fewer, and somewhat different, Babesia symptoms than I do. We both have microti, as far as I know. I don't think we have duncani. Of course, we could have any mystery strain.
Babesia testing is truly a nightmare.
From LymeDisease.org (formerly CALDA):
Blood smears may be examined under a microscope to try to identify the parasite inside red blood cells, however this method is reliable only in the first two weeks of the infection.
Commercial tests currently work for only three species of Babesia, and there are likely many species yet to be discovered.
The PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test can detect babesia DNA in the blood. The FISH (Fluorescent In-Situ Hybridization) assay can detect the ribosomal RNA of Babesia in thin blood smears.
The patient�s blood can also be tested for antibodies to Babesia. It may be necessary to run several different tests and negative results should not be used to rule out treatment.
(I don't know when this was written. CALDA is a great source of info, but Lyme info grows and morphs constantly. Kind of like our microbes.)
Good luck Bea!!!
Posted by poppy (Member # 5355) on :
That information about babesia only being found in early infection was not true in my case. The blood smear had babesia, I have a picture of it, and that was close to four years after my tickbite.
Posted by frenchmoxie (Member # 39278) on :
BoxerMom,
Did you take a break from your antibiotics before testing or do you know what the recommended procedure is as far as that goes?
Posted by seibertneurolyme (Member # 6416) on :
Talked to hubby's LLMD last night. I asked what is the accepted testing for babesia -- how many blood smears need to be done to rule it out? Was told there is no standard. What I read on the CDC website just said multiple smears may be required.
Of course the hospital only did one stain initially and would have stopped there if I had not insisted. I think they eventually did 3 stains themselves plus the 2 I sent to Clongen and the one still pending from F lab -- blood was not drawn til after hubby passed and he was still on mepron and zithromax and zosyn I think.
Hubby has had positive blood smears from the old Bowen lab back in 2002 and 2003 I think it was -- not on any meds at that time. Then again from F lab back in 2007 while on low dose quinine and clindamycin and later from Clongen several times while on various meds -- once in 2010 while on lariam and I forget what else.
In some cases I think a drug challenge with malaria drugs could increase the chances of a positive blood smear -- or maybe that would only increase the chances of a positive antibody or PCR test?
Hubby tested negative by PCR from Clongen for babesia duncani and also on their babesia species panel (think they test 9 strains) but had a positive bloodslide (both wet mount and stained smear) while in the hospital. Still don't know if it was some unknown strain of babesia or the FL1953 pathogen.
Bea Seibert
Frenchmoxie -- If you have never treated for babesia or are not currently treating it then I would suggest doing the ECP (eosinophil cationic protein test) from LabCorp -- think it costs $189. It would be an indirect test but could be helpful. Search this website for more info on the test. But as with all babesia testing it could be inaccurate if your body has used up its store of eosinophils as can happen with severe parasite infections -- either G.I. parasitesor blood borne parasites such as babesia.
Posted by CD57 (Member # 11749) on :
Also what about Spirostat? They found a random new strain of either babs or bart, can't remember, in a friend's blood.
Posted by seibertneurolyme (Member # 6416) on :
CD57,
Hubby did the SpiroStat test back in April -- actually did the lyme panel and babs tests 2 times -- cost of $975. They did not find anything at all. But the live blood analysis with a phase contrast microscope done a few days before the SpiroStat test found babesia and many other things.
Hubby had gone back on antibiotics for 5 days -- plan was to stop meds and then do the SpiroStat test. But he got so sick he ended up in the hospital from restarting antibiotics and antimalarials and he did not stop the meds before doing the SpiroStat test -- that may have influenced his results.
The plan was to do an antibiotic challenge to improve production of antibodies for some tests and to kill off other things so more DNA would be available for PCR testing -- backfired bigtime.
I am not a big fan of PCR testing -- a positive is worth its weight in gold but a negative is not definitive of anything.
It is my understanding that to rule out lyme by PCR testing you would need to test 20 blood samples -- very few people can afford that. Not sure how many blood samples would actually be needed to rule out babesia.
But one of the few positive lyme tests hubby had over the years was a PCR for lyme from IGeneX back in 2002 before he had any antibiotic treatment. But the IDSA does not accept a PCR lyme test as a valid test -- only Western Blot as established back in 1984 I think it was at the Deerborne Conference.
Bea Seibert
Posted by seekhelp (Member # 15067) on :
Bea, wow, I didn't know the hospital actually found a positive blood smear when Steve was tested during his stay?
Was it the hospital lab that discovered this or a specialty send-out lab?
That's pretty disheartening if it really does require that many PCR attempts to get a valid results.
I remember you said Steve wished to have his body sent to a tick-borne research facility for research. If I'm wrong, I'm sorry. I thought you posted this a while back. If that is done, I really hope useful information is discovered that could help the whole Lyme community. I am sure he would have wanted that given both of you having such incredible dedication this illness complex.
I hope you're doing OK - as best as possible given the cirumstances of course. Take care.
Posted by Catgirl (Member # 31149) on :
![[Frown]](frown.gif)