Positive elisa test for lyme
Common Questions and Answers about Positive elisa test for lyme
elisa-test
The Wblot/ELISA tests rely on your immune system reaction to determine whether you have a positive (+) test or a negative (-) test for Lyme. Sounds solid, but it turns out that the Lyme bacteria can suppress your immune system, with the result that the Wblot/ELISA tests showing negative ('no Lyme infection') could be wrong, and you could indeed have Lyme.
There is a newer test called PCR, short for 'polymerase chain reaction'.
Hi All,
My husband wrote the previous post regarding myself with possible lyme's disease. Here are all my symptoms: headaches, joint aches, swollen lymph nodes in neck, ear pain in and behind ear, jaw pain with some tooth pain, fatigue, dizziness (almost like a brain fog), some word-finding difficulties (could be related to fatigue), and some occasional tingling/numbness in arms, hands, and left side of face. All these symptoms are intermittent. What are your thoughts?
Hi Goldie23
You are asking good questions --
I'm guessing FMS means fibromyalgia? MPS and DDD I don't know. Lyme patients are sometimes told they have fibromyalgia, a disease syndrome with no known cause or cure. We do know however that Lyme is caused by a specific bacterium and is treatable.
Could someone please tell me if I could test positive for Lyme Disease one week and then I was started on doxycline and four weeks later my infectious disease doctor told me I tested negative and I must not have Lyme Disease.
Got tested for HIV and all other stds which came back negative. I did not have much energy all summer long. Then i started having tingling in my face, hands, and feet. Had no energy at all. My knees were sore and lower back was in constant pain.
The quotations below are from the Mayo Clinic website, discussing Lyme testing:
1 -- ELISA can sometimes give a false positive result:
"Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test: The test used most often to detect Lyme disease, ELISA detects antibodies to B. burgdorferi. But because it can sometimes provide false-positive results, it's not used as the sole basis for diagnosis.
The IDSA guidelines use a 2-tier blood testing scheme for detecting Lyme. In the 1st step, the ELISA test is used. This is like a screening test. If (and only if) the ELISA is positive, the 2nd step is to do a Western blot test, which looks for certain antibodies in the blood that are (mostly) specific to Lyme disease. There are criteria for how many "bands" (each band is like a different antibody) must appear on the Western blot to fit the CDC definition of positive.
I also have peripheral neuropathy and fatigue - and have had 3 negative Lyme tests and finally got a positive ELISA at Johns Hopkins and then a positive IgM Western Blot thru Ignenex Labs, CA. I live on the east coast, so I had my blood Fed Exed to CA. It's that important, so please look into it. Take care and keep us posted.
The doc should know what to order, and if they don't, then they may not understand the results either. :(
There is much misunderstanding among docs about which tests to use and which ones to believe.
here is some of the explanation from California Lyme Disease Assn (aka CALDA) on this point:
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Antibody tests
The most common tests measure the patient’s antibody response to infection.
s reaction to the Lyme bacteria, the PCR test looks for DNA of the Lyme bacteria in your blood -- that is, a direct test, rather than an indirect test like W.blot/ELISA.
Docs who are not particularly up to date on Lyme do not 'believe' in the PCR test but do believe that W.blot/ELISA is fully accurate. If you need help finding a Lyme specialist who understands all this, let us know.
hmm, I think you have a pretty good reason to start reading all you can about Lyme disease, btw there is no "s" in lyme disease.
Here's what I did:
go to lymenet.org
click on Flash Discussions
then Medical Questions it's a large site filled with lymies and they offer tons and tons of support and info. There's a link called Newbie Links on the Medical Section. I would also suggest you post this very question there.
other sites to visit..ILADS.org canlyme.
A negative Western blot test means the ELISA test was a false positive test. The Western blot test can also be unclear, in which case more testing is done.
Negative tests do not rule out HIV infection. There is a period of time (called the "window period") between HIV infection and the appearance of anti-HIV antibodies that can be measured. This period is 3 months from exposure. However, negative WB at 45 days is certainly very encouraging.
t enough positive (+) bands to make a diagnosis of Lyme, I would take the printed test result to another Lyme doc for a second opinion, because there is *something* causing that positive reaction -- it may be a weak positive, but weak or strong, Lyme is Lyme. A good Lyme doc knows that and takes even the weak tests seriously.
It sounds like your daughter's doc is looking for high levels of infection and immune reaction, but Lyme has the ability to *suppress* the human immune system ...
(I went through *20* MDs before Dr #20 ran Lyme test, and when the test came back positive, the very nice doc assured me I could not possibly have Lyme, because I "didn't look sick enough." Riiiiiight. I took the positive test result to a Lyme specialist and got properly diagnosed and treated and back to good health.)
Here are a couple of thoughts for your consideration (and remember, I'm not a doc, just a Lyme survivor! Yeah!
This is the long way to say that you got the standard, non-LLMD tests for Lyme, but they can be wrong. Some people with Lyme show positive on those tests, but as time goes on since initial infection, the immune system reaction fades away and the ELISA/W.blot tests become less and less accurate in someone who actually has a real case of Lyme.
I was on my 20th MD, still looking for a diagnosis for my illness, when out of desperation Doc #20 ordered the ELISA/W.
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