posted
1.LYME DISEASE EIA W/REFLEX IGG IGM WB results negative B Burgdorferi Abs <=0.90 2.Babesia microti AB,IGG/M negative 3.Ehrlichia chaffeenis, IgG negative 4.Bartonnella AB panel negative These are the 4 tests I have done locally. I just mailed igenex the other day. I have appointment with a LLMD next week. I believe if I had lyme I have had it for 40 years. Is it common to have all these negatives. Can someone shed light on this for me?
Posts: 58 | From GA | Registered: Dec 2014
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I have tested negative 5 or so times, even on the co infections so it's not surprising. I did test positive
on igenex. If you still have doubts see a llmd. They will diagnose clinically.
Posts: 159 | From usa | Registered: Sep 2014
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TF
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 14183
posted
If you tested through Quest or LabCorp, their tests are junk.
Many get all negatives from these labs even though they have the diseases.
The Lyme Disease EIA is such a junk test that Burrascano says not to even do it. It misses at least half of all lyme cases.
A non-lyme literate doctor orders the EIA. The lab does not do a Western Blot unless the EIA is positive. So, in your case, the Western Blot was not done.
See this quote from Burrascano on the subject:
"The suggestion that two-tiered testing, utilizing an ELISA as a screening tool, followed, if positive, by a confirmatory western blot, is illogical in this illness. The ELISA is not sensitive enough to serve as an adequate screen, and there are many patients with Lyme who test negative by ELISA yet have fully diagnostic western blots. I therefore recommend against using the ELISA. Order IgM and IgG western blots- but be aware that in late disease there may be repeatedly peaking IgM's and therefore a reactive IgM may not differentiate early from late disease, but it does suggest an active infection." (page 7)
Note: ELISA and EIA are the same.
I hope you can see that these general labs just don't do good tests.
Hope Igenex gives you better info.
Also, know that all of the tests you had done are indirect tests. They were not looking for lyme or babesia, bart, or ehrlicia. Rather, they were looking for antibodies to these germs.
A person who has been ill with these diseases for a good while often no longer makes antibodies to these germs. So, their tests will be negative.
Here is Burrascano on the subject, page 3:
"An unfortunate corollary is that serologic tests can become less sensitive as the infections progress, obviously because of the decreased immune response upon which these tests are based. In addition, immune complexes form, trapping Bb antibodies. These complexed antibodies are not detected by serologic testing. Not surprisingly the seronegative patient will convert to seropositive 36% of the time after antibiotic treatment has begun and a recovery is underway. Similarly, the antibody titer may rise, and the number of bands on the western blot may increase as treatment progresses and the patient recovers."
You are the seronegative patient at this point. See what happens once you begin treatment. Things could change.
And, here Burrascano says that no lyme test is reliable:
"DIAGNOSTIC HINTS Lyme Borreliosis (LB) is diagnosed clinically, as no currently available test, no matter the source or type, is definitive in ruling in or ruling out infection with these pathogens, or whether these infections are responsible for the patient's symptoms." (page 7)
The coinfection tests are no better. Here is Burrascano talking on babesiosis tests:
"DIAGNOSTIC TESTS Diagnostic tests are insensitive and problematic. There are at least thirteen, and possibly as many as two dozen Babesia forms found in ticks, yet we can currently only test for B. microti and WA-1 with our serologic and nuclear tests." (page 23)
He says the same about the rest of the coinfection tests.
When he spoke, Burrascano always recommended that people be tested by reference labs. He would always name Igenex as a reference lab. Quest and LabCorp are NOT reference labs.
So, you get what you pay for.
In addition, if the doctor's office let the blood sit, it will clump. Then, any antibodies that your body made would be caught in the clumps and would not show up in the test.
Burrascano talks about this possibility in the page 3 quote.
So, these are a few of the reasons you may have tested negative.
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