posted
I have been sick for over a year. I finally went to a ND to see if she could help because my Doctor's couldn't. She tested me for Lyme and when the results came back, she said I did, in fact, have Lyme. I took the paperwork to my Primary Care and he says that I do not. Can someone shed some light? Here is the lab results:
Western Blot -
All IgG - ABSENT
IgM p23 - Present
according to my PC, I don't have enough criteria. So why would one band be positive? Is this just random??
Any help would be appreciated as I am so confused. thank you.
Posts: 5 | From Tallahassee, Florida | Registered: Oct 2013
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droid1226
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 34930
posted
post all results unless you're saying they are all negative. IND is interpreted as a positive to most lyme dr's
posted
My daughter also had only band 23 on first Western Blot. Four Lyme literate docs have agreed that is enough for a diagnosis. Of course other testing has supported the diagnosis. I feel very confident that she has tick-borne illnesses. I have always felt that perhaps her Lyme is different (different strain or whatever) so it doesn't react the same.
Your PCP is likely following inadequate CDC testing guidelines that require more bands (5/10 IgG, 2/3 IgM). But any doctor experienced at interpreting results will say even one Lyme specific band indicates Lyme exposure.
Posts: 312 | From Utah | Registered: Nov 2010
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Catgirl
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 31149
posted
Yeah, you have it. Band 23 only comes up with lyme. Once you start treating for it, other bands will pop up.
-------------------- --Keep an open mind about everything. Also, remember to visit ACTIVISM (we can change things together). Posts: 5418 | From earth | Registered: Mar 2011
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How long have you been ill? Very generally, IgG is typically the long last antibodies while IgM suggests your immune system believes its a new infection.
Labcorp seems to have a very poor track record. Many people report Labcorb showed no bands while another lab showed many. Like me.
23 is OspC which is suspicious since its a primary Borrelia surface protein. There are however cross reacting antibodies but its worthy of finding a better lab.
If you have reason to believe you might have Lyme, try a more reliable lab such as:
Igenex, Imugen and StonyBrook use multiple strains in their Blot antigens which improves the tests sensitivity across strains..
Posts: 51 | From California | Registered: Aug 2013
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I notice you are from Florida. Do you believe you were bitten locally or might it have been while you were traveling to the Northeast?
The reason I ask is a recent study by Kerry Clark at the University of Florida identified strains in Georgia and Florida which would would not be caught by a standard Western Blot.
You might reach out to the authors of the paper asking about testing options. The only tests that have a chance of catching distant strains are the C6 or European EUROIMMUN.
C6 fails for some strains plus decays over time. But its available and is an option. EUROIMMUN is not available in the US.
Igenex claims their 2 strain Western Blot has performed well at catching distant strains. If you are unlucky enough to have a distant strain or even species, the standard Western Blot will almost always fail.
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