This is a new article on Florida Lab with claims that they are the best. I don't see too many people overexcited by this lab on Lymenet.
Yet, read the article because who knows...
Florida lab claims to have superior Lyme disease test Test, however, is non FDA-approved, and Dr. Tim Lepore is skeptical BY MARY LANCASTER INDEPENDENT WRITER AFlorida laboratory facility maintains that for the last year it has been able to offer a blood test that specifically identifies whether a person is carrying the antigen or bacteria that causes Lyme disease. It is a test company principals claim is superior to the standard Western Blot test routinely run to search for antibodies that may appear after someone is exposed to the bacteria.
"The bacteria itself is extremely hard to find, which is why it has taken a year to get this test into use," said Thomas Long, President of Central Florida Research, Inc. based in Lake Alfred, Fla. Long contacted The Independent following its cover story on tick and Lyme disease published on Dec. 5.
"No one else in the United States has a test for the bacteria itself through blood processing. Florida is the only state to approve a test of this kind. Western Blot is sketchy in accuracy and not everyone hit with this bug creates antibodies," he said. "The benefit of this test is that it tells the doctor earlier and definitively if we see bacteria or not in the blood."
Not everyone is as enthusiastic about this testing method as Long, however.
"There are a number of bogus tests out there," said Nantucket physician Dr. Tim Lepore, who has treated scores of islanders with debilitating tickborne diseases. "This is not an FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved test. And where is the test described in a referee [medical] journal?"
Long, standing by his laboratory's work, confirmed that the test is not FDA approved. While he also said no articles about the test have been published in medical editions, he noted that on January 1 the facility's medical director, Dr. Clifford Threlkeld, will be distributing a paper on the test for peer review.
At this time, the test, formally called Identification and Quantification of Borrelia Burgdorferi by Flow Cytometry, only indicates the presence of Lyme bacteria. Long said the lab is working on tests to show the presence of bacteria for babesiosis and ehrlichia that he anticipates will be ready to submit for state approval next spring. Still, he said he has confidence in his facility's current clinical test as a means to spot Lyme bacteria infection in its earliest stages to allow treatment before the disease gains a foothold in a person's body. The drawback to the test, said Long, is that it is not particularly effective in finding late phase Lyme after the bacteria has left the bloodstream and has entered tissue and spinal fluid. Generally, he said, the test is most useful when done between the time bacteria appears in the blood about a month after infection, when a patient shows potential disease symptoms, and up to three or four years after those occurrences.
Although the test is not FDA approved, Long said it has been measured against Western Blot and other methods to obtain its validity, and that any doctor from any state except New York State, which has different licensing laws, may contact the laboratory to arrange for blood tests to be run for the presence of Lyme.
"Nobody knows we're here," he said, explaining that the lab was founded 10 years ago as an outgrowth of work done by former hematologist Dr. Joanne Whitaker and until a year ago was known as
Bowen Research. I
Posted by SForsgren (Member # 7686) on :
I would agree that the test does not seem to be useful for chronic Lyme especially if treatment is already underway as the blood is not where the bugs are hanging around. I've heard of lots of negtives (myself included) on this test.
Posted by bboswell (Member # 14188) on :
hey, just thought you might like their web its www.centralfloridaresearch.com have friends who used this test with great results i am not to good on computer but i see so much negative on testing i feel we need better testing and everyone talks FDA-CDC what do they know or dont want us to know i also see people talking about this lab and talk bout a Q-RIB test they have they dont even use it just thought youd like to know BB
Posted by artur737 (Member # 11151) on :
I don't like their website and what they write there.
Who are they to mislead everyone?
Much better is real time PCR and not their obsolete flow cytometry.
Posted by lymednva (Member # 9098) on :
artur737 said:
quote: Much better is real time PCR and not their obsolete flow cytometry.
In my opinion it would be much better to use an Igenex Western Blot. PCR is not that accurate for testing either, not that anything really is, at least for us who have been ill for decades. Posted by bboswell (Member # 14188) on :
737 please explain how these people are misleading everyone. and though flowcytometry has been around for a while for other testing this is first time used for detecting Bb in blood i think this is a breaktrough not somthing obsolete.
Posted by artur737 (Member # 11151) on :
I have just explained it above.Please reread my post.
Bboswell, since you are obviously close with this Florida lab can you explain what was the nature of the Bowen's civil suit against Igenex?
I have read about it somewhere but no details were provided.
Posted by SForsgren (Member # 7686) on :
PCR for Lyme is clearly not a good option. Even the heads of most labs will tell you that the recovery rate and positive test rate is so low that PCR is not often recommended or you have to do it many times to get a positive result.
Posted by SForsgren (Member # 7686) on :
Welcome to Lymenet Boswell!
Posted by artur737 (Member # 11151) on :
SForsgren,
I run a busy Polish Lymenet Board with about a hundred of posts per day on average.
Poland has a big LD problem because forest makes about 35% of its territory. Do I need to add that this forest is infested with infected ticks?
At present in Poland there is a lot of will to figure out this Lyme diagnostics and to find a cure since significant percent of Polish population has bb and many are very sick.
In Poland there is a high-tech lab that specializes in tick borne diseases and has developed real time PCR for LD to such a level of perfection that detection rate with their test is probably about 90% and far exceeds sensitivity of WB or regular PCR for LD.
At present this lab is intensively working on developing similar test for Babs and Bart.
I can only say that it all looks awfully good. In regards to real time PCR the US and Canada are behind.
Services of this European lab will soon (a few months or a year I think) become available worldwide for testing and will offer inexpensive one test for Lyme and coinfections (at the same time since DNA has to be multiplied only once).
Only one test for all confections because you need to multiply the blood DNA only once and appropriate probes will identify if the DNA comes from babs, bart, mycoplasms, chalmydia or whatever.
Real time PCR is a new generation test that far exceeds regular PCR.
In addition in Poland we also suggest that people who want to take rt PCR test for LD, supplement themselves with Citrosept for 1-3 days in hopes that it it will increase the amount of bb in their blood so the diagnostics is even further enhanced. (I wrote about it not long ago on this board)
At present Igenex can offer PCR test but this test is less sensitive since it is not real time type.
Also Igenex will charge you for every coinfection separately. Since the European lab will do all the testing from one DNA multiplication, testing through them will be a lot cheaper.
Just wait and see for yourself! Posted by Soleilpie (Member # 8481) on :
Testing in general is bad because these damn spirochetes prefer to be in tissue other than blood. So, Central Florida Research is right when they say if there were Bb antibodies in the blood, Western blots would or at least should pick up on it.
Bb being scarce in the blood in later Lyme is the key to the problems with the currently available Lyme tests. Even with Central FL Research's test, it's a problem because it relies on blood samples.
On a positive note, if their test detects the Bb antigen, then I believe that's a definitive diagnosis for Lyme. It's proof that the actual bacteria itself has been detected & still residing in the body. It's completely different than a test just detecting an antibody to Bb because the results do not indicate whether it's a current or a past infection.
As a side note, I did read research that found that band 39 shows up only when there's viable Bb versus dead, so that tells me if Band 39 shows up on the results, there's live Bb and it's a current infection.
Posted by bboswell (Member # 14188) on :
hey arthur not close enough to know about law suit sorry but SF found something thanks SF i hope that helps arthur im not a med resercher or anything so maybe i missed somthing but i still dont understand how this lab is missleading on their site / THANKS for the info on polands research that sounds great to me have a happy new year BB
Posted by CaliforniaLyme (Member # 7136) on :
I think Bowen is a good lab. Doc J relies on them and many LLMDs do use Bowen but don't admit it in public because of its problems.
I also think Fry is a good lab.
I also think Igenex is a good lab.
Posted by lpkayak (Member # 5230) on :
my llmds don't use bowen
some do...some don't . this whole mess is so hard to figure out
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