posted
From my reading I realize that it is unreliable. We can't have the Western Blot done till they put a Pic line in her for blood. She has been so sick that they can not draw blood from her.
I was just curious as to the percentage of people that had an equivical answer on lymes Elisa test and then had positive on Western Blot. Would be nice to know we are looking in the right direction.
Thanks!
-------------------- Mom to sick 12 yr old Diagnosed with Bart and Lyme.
Started Zithromax and Bactrim 11/2011 Posts: 16 | From Maryland | Registered: Oct 2011
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t9im
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 25489
posted
Hi grt:
When the CDC Dearborn 2 tier test for Lyme was implemented the Elisa had a 35% false negative rate.
The WB's are also not sensitive enough (google Enstrom (the IgM standard) and Dressler (the IgG standard) adopted with the Elisa screening first as the WB was more expensive.
So we have the controversy in diagnosing and treating. See video's below to help understand.
posted
I've never heard of an ELISA being "equivocal" .. only positive or negative. That said, there are plenty of people here (or at least in years past) who were negative on the ELISA and positive on the Western Blot.
The WB is a much more sensitive test when done by a good lab such as Igenex.
"When physicians do consider borreliosis, they often start with a screening test such as an EIA, ELISA, IFA or PCR-DNA probe. If the initial screening test is negative, many physicians tell patients they do not have Lyme borreliosis and the testing is stopped right there.
Screening tests that are positive are often followed by a test called the Western blot. The blot is a �confirmatory� test, as opposed to a screening test.
(Blots are performed for other infection -- it is a type of test, not a test uniquely for the Lyme bacteria.)
Western blots are accomplished by breaking the Borrelia burgdorferi into pieces, and those parts of the Lyme bacteria are then embedded in a gel.
Electricity is used to push antibodies made by the immune system through the gel. Antibodies that are made to attach to certain parts of the Lyme bacteria will bind to those exact parts that are embedded in the gel.
When the antibodies bind to the parts of the bacteria, a black band is formed, which is then interpreted as +/-, +, ++ or +++ depending upon the intensity or darkness of the band.
Each part of the Lyme bacteria weighs a certain amount. For example, the tail of the Lyme bacteria weighs 41 kilodaltons (kDa).
Think of kilodaltons like pounds, ounces or kilograms. The numbers on a Western blot such as 23, 31, 34 or 39 refer to how much that particular part of the bacteria weighs in kilodaltons.
The significant antibodies, in my opinion, are the 18, 23-25, 28, 30, 31, 34, 39, 58, 66 and 93.
It�s important to know that screening tests like the EIA, ELISA, IFA and PCR can be negative even when the Western blot (confirmatory test) is positive.
I presented research that supported this at the 1994 International Lyme Borreliosis Conference held in Bologna, Italy.
For this reason I believe the screening tests are practically worthless, and is why I use the Western blot to �screen� for borreliosis, even though it is a �confirmatory� test."
--Dr C of MO
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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