A friend of mine said she saw a show on the Discovery Channel the other night - Mystery ER - I think. Anyway, she said that the woman on the show (a well-known weather woman) was diagnosed via a urine test.
Does anyone know the name of the urine test?
Does anyone know the name of the woman that was diagnosed/helped on the show?
Thanks.
Posts: 124 | From Indiana | Registered: Oct 2007
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seekhelp
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 15067
posted
I believe it was a Lyme antigen test (PCR). Others on here told me it picks up Lyme 30% of the time. It is very accurate they said. The person just got lucky on the show. They always have happy endings. Posts: 7545 | From The 5th Dimension - The Twilight Zone | Registered: Mar 2008
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disturbedme
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12346
posted
Augh, only 30% of the time????
WHYYYYYY can't we have better tests?
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My Lyme Story Posts: 2965 | From Land of Confusion (bitten in KS, moved to PA, now living in MD) | Registered: Jun 2007
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Keebler
Honored Contributor (25K+ posts)
Member # 12673
posted
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You can check out the materials at this site - or call them.
I am not sure, but as seekhelp says, the PCR antigen test may be what you have in mind. If you decide to do this, you may need to be either on or off of abx - or a particular abx for a certain amount of time for the test to be as reliable as possible.
Guidance by a LLMD would be best, again, for the best results. So often if one little thing is not done correctly, the results can be worthless.
And, as mentioned above, it is wise to take into consideration the chance for the test being able to capture signs of Bb, etc.
You also should be aware that if you GP runs any tests that come back marked negative (even if the CDC criteria is wrong) that you may have severely lessened your chance for any retesting or consideration of treatment.
That is why it is best for the LLMDs to run the tests as they know best exactly how to order and the prep for the test - and how to interpret the results - or what other tests to order or other conditions to consider.
good luck. this has to get better, but getting to a plan can take a while.
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.
==========================
AFTER reading the Savely article above, this will make more sense and, sadly, shows the state of 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.
Patients should also be evaluated for coinfections. Not all tests are great in that regard, either, but a good LLMD can evaluate you and then guide you in testing. One of the top labs is:
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
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
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