Hey there..Welcome to Lyme Net!
These folks have given you great info already.
I will add a few things if I may.
First... please check this site posted at the end of my reply.
Please take a look at the article by Dr. L concerning.. The Sensible Pursuit of Answers.
It is a GREAT article that may help explain some things...
Here is a quote from Dr. C's article about Western Blots, etc. This may also explain some things about your specific bands.
And... As you will see... the bands you have are significant.
# 93 is SPECIFIC for Bb... (Lyme disease).
Hope this info helps...
But most of all.. hope you feel better soon!
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Quote from Dr. C in Missouri... the big old corn fed mule state! HA!
"**An example of the CDC's criteria of a blot test, is if a patient has the band pattern of 41, 45, 58, 66, and 93, the CDC would call it positive.
But if a patient has a 23-25, 31, 34, and 39 band pattern, they would call
it negative. This is despite the fact that this second pattern of antigen-antibody complex bands is much more specifically associated with Borrelia burgdorferi than the first pattern.
As you can see, borreliosis is very controversial. It would be alarming if I was the only clinician who thought
that the CDC recommendations should not be used for day-to day medical practice.
Many borrelia clinicians do not use the CDC criteria. This is obvious by the fact that the IgX laboratory uses different criteria for positive.
Again, in my opinion and others', even one borrelia-associated antibody is significant, if symptoms exist. The classic triad of symptoms for borreliosis is fatigue (tiredness, exhaustion), musculoskeletal pain
(joints, muscles, back, neck, headache), and cognitive problems (memory loss, trouble concentrating, difficulty remembering what you read, depression, disorientation, getting lost).
But there are about 100 symptoms on the borreliosis questionnaire I use. Borreliosis may mimic or imitate virtually any disease. Patients often tell me that other physicians they have seen use the CDC recommendations.
This is unfortunate, in my opinion, since these physicians are not in the business of
disease surveillance, like the CDC is.
But I am biased. After seeing patients with borreliosis since 1988, attending many conferences, talking with experts, and doing research on borreliosis testing, there is absolutely no question in my mind that physicians need to not blindly accept any recommendations.
One of my hopes is that doctors will someday realize that this controversy is a signal for them to search for the truth.
Why is there such conflict in this very "political" disease if there is not substance for disagreement?
Both IgG and IgM Western blots should be done for borreliosis.
With most infections, your immune system first forms IgM antibodies, then in about 2 to 4 weeks, you see IgG antibodies. In some infections, IgG antibodies may be detectable for years.
Because Borrelia burgdorferi
is a chronic persistent infection that may last for decades, you would think patients with chronic symptoms would have positive IgG Western blots.
But actually, more IgM blots are positive in chronic borreliosis than IgG. Every time Borrelia burgdorferi reproduces itself, it may stimulate the immune system to form new IgM antibodies.
Some patients have both IgG and IgM blots positive. But if either the IgG or IgM blot is positive, overall it is a positive result.
Response to antibiotics is the same if either is positive, or both. Some antibodies against the borrelia are given more significance if they are IgG versus IgM, or vice versa.
Since this is a chronic persistent infection, this does not make a lot of sense to me. A newly formed Borrelia
burgdorferi should have the same antigen parts as the previous bacteria that produced it.
But anyway, from my clinical experience, these borrelia associated bands usually predict a clinical change in symptoms with
antibiotics, regardless of whether they are IgG or IgM. In regard to the outer surface proteins, think of it like the skin of a human.
On the outer surface of the Lyme bacteria are various proteins. As they have been discovered, they have been assigned letters, such as outer surface proteins A, B, and C.
The following is a brief explanation of the
test results. Again, each band is an antigen complexed (bound together) with an antibody made by the immune system, specifically for that antigen (part) of Borrelia burgdorferi.
...
41: Flagella or tail. This is how Borrelia burgdorferi moves around, by moving the flagella. Many bacteria
have flagella. This is the most common borreliosis antibody.
...
66: Heat shock protein. This is the second most common borrelia antibody.
...
83: This is the DNA or genetic material of Borrelia burgdorferi. It is the same thing as the 93, based upon the medical literature. But laboratories vary in assigning significance to the 83 versus the 93.
93: The DNA or genetic material of Borrelia burgdorferi.
In my clinical experience, if a patient has symptoms suspicious for borreliosis, and has one or more of the following bands, there is a very high probability the patient has borreliosis.
These bands are 18, 22, 23-25, 28, 30, 31, 34, 37, 39, 41, 83, and 93. This is true regardless of whether it is IgG or IgM.. But again, there is no universal agreement on the significance of these bands."
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To see Dr. L's article... click here..
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