Topic: Do you get many false negatives with babesia tests?
tickbattler
Unregistered
posted
Hi all,
I'm wondering if my son has babesia but he has tested negative in the past.
Does anyone know if the babesia antibody panel or the babesia FISH tests are any more reliable than the the lyme and bartonella tests? I know there are many false negatives with those.
I am awaiting recent testing to see if anything has changed over the past 4 months since he was previously tested for babs. He did test positive for lyme and two strains of bartonella at that time.
posted
It's very common. Does he have the symptoms??
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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tickbattler
Unregistered
posted
He's only 4, so it's tough to get a clear idea of his symptoms, but he does have light night sweats and does tire easily. He also has headaches much of the time and he iron was recently tested and it was on the very low side of normal; close to being too low. He also sees orange and blue spots quite often.
Those symptoms sound like they could be babs to me, but I know bart can also cause the night sweats and headaches as well.
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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richedie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14689
posted
babesia FISH tests are considered very accurate. EgeneX has a very acurate test.
-------------------- Mepron/Zith/Ceftin Doxy/Biaxin/Flagyl pulse. Artemisinin with Doxy/Biaxin. Period of Levaquin and Ceftin. Then Levaquin, Bactrim and Biaxin. Bactrim/Augmentin/Rifampin. Mepron/Biaxin/Artemisinin/Cat's Claw Rifampin/Bactrim/Alinia Plaquenil/Biaxin Posts: 1949 | From Pennsylvania | Registered: Feb 2008
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babesia FISH tests are considered very accurate. IgeneX has a very acurate test. [/qb]
Wrong on both counts!!! No test is accurate when you're dealing with a hundred different strains and they only test for a few.
The FISH is great IF it comes back positive...but it's highly likely to come back negative.
"Approximately 25%- 66% of Babesia patients are known to be co-infected with Lyme disease. These symptoms may continue for long periods of time, decrease, then return.
A low Babesiosis titer (IgG) often indicates a chronic infection. An acute or current infection may show a higher reading on the IgM test initially.
There are over 100 species of Babesia in the United States but only ONE or TWO species are currently checked by commercial labs."
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
I never tested positive for babesia, but I'm responding well to babesia treatment, fwiw.
Posts: 975 | From California | Registered: Apr 2007
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richedie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14689
posted
Sorry Lymetoo, I understand...I take it back. I know Bart is tough as well....but they have a new test coming out in the fall!
My Babesia FISH came back positive as did my other Babesia test from IGX. For this reason, they felt is was a confirmation for Babs as well as other TBD. Would you agree?
Thanks!
-------------------- Mepron/Zith/Ceftin Doxy/Biaxin/Flagyl pulse. Artemisinin with Doxy/Biaxin. Period of Levaquin and Ceftin. Then Levaquin, Bactrim and Biaxin. Bactrim/Augmentin/Rifampin. Mepron/Biaxin/Artemisinin/Cat's Claw Rifampin/Bactrim/Alinia Plaquenil/Biaxin Posts: 1949 | From Pennsylvania | Registered: Feb 2008
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richedie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14689
posted
bump
-------------------- Mepron/Zith/Ceftin Doxy/Biaxin/Flagyl pulse. Artemisinin with Doxy/Biaxin. Period of Levaquin and Ceftin. Then Levaquin, Bactrim and Biaxin. Bactrim/Augmentin/Rifampin. Mepron/Biaxin/Artemisinin/Cat's Claw Rifampin/Bactrim/Alinia Plaquenil/Biaxin Posts: 1949 | From Pennsylvania | Registered: Feb 2008
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johnnyb
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 7645
posted
Yes,
Even though my symptoms screamed "babesia!" I was not able to get treatment due to testing negative for babesia microti.
Skip ahead 3 years later (to early this year), and they finally start testing for babesia duncani on the east coast- guess what my result was? + + + + + + + + +
And as mentioned before, they are not able to test for all the strains. My LLMD was not able to prescribe meds for me without the positive result, so she couldn't treat me properly.
Wish we had better tests for this.
Posts: 1197 | From New Jersey | Registered: Jul 2005
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tickbattler
Unregistered
posted
Thank you all for your replies. Just got the test results back today and my son is positive for babs microti through the babesia FISH test.
I also asked my ped to do a babesia microti antibody panel through Quest since it was covered through insurance and that came back as negative, even though there was a low titer of 1:16 for IGG and 1:20 for IGM.
Seems to me that if a titer is present, then doesn't that mean there at least has been some exposure to babs at some time? I can't understand why they would consider that a negative!
Oh well, thank goodness I did the FISH test and caught it.
Our ped LLMD has prescribed Mepron in addition to the azith and bactrim. My poor little guy. It is heartbreaking that he needs to be on all of these meds.
richedie
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 14689
posted
Nobody mentioned Bactrum to me!
My LLMD said I would have been treated regardless of test outcome!
Is the babesia microti and dunconi treated the same?
-------------------- Mepron/Zith/Ceftin Doxy/Biaxin/Flagyl pulse. Artemisinin with Doxy/Biaxin. Period of Levaquin and Ceftin. Then Levaquin, Bactrim and Biaxin. Bactrim/Augmentin/Rifampin. Mepron/Biaxin/Artemisinin/Cat's Claw Rifampin/Bactrim/Alinia Plaquenil/Biaxin Posts: 1949 | From Pennsylvania | Registered: Feb 2008
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tickbattler
Unregistered
posted
Sorry richedie - the bactrim is for the bart that my son has. He now has lyme, babs and two strains of bart.
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