Quest--agh--Lyme Results Igenex

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We have had folks with bulls eye rashes come up full negative at 5,6, 8, 9, 13

weeks etc.

http://www.personalconsult.com/articles/lymetesting.html

www.personalconsult.com

Lyme Testing: The Problems Rarely Appreciated

Many good and sincere physicians have been trained to perceive Lyme testing

falsely, and some are even infectious disease consultants.

Lyme is a very sophisticated bug. It is partially related to the bug that causes

syphilis. There are literally well over a dozen reasons for missing the

diagnosis.

First, that bulls eye rash is a good sign you have it. But many other " bite "

patterns or rash patterns can also be Lyme. In fact only 1/2 get any kind of

mark or rash. And only 25-50% have the popular bulls eye rash. Sometimes a bulls

eye rash is not on a part of you body you easily see and so is missed.

1.. Lyme can hide by a number of ways from your immune system.

2.. It your immune system is not tuned up and working very well you can be

found fully negative on multiple lab tests.

3.. Most tests for Lyme are antibody tests. Antibodies, also known as

immunoglobulins, are proteins that recognize something foreign in the bodyÑlike

infecting bacteria and help remove it. The first and most common test your

doctor usually orders is an ELISA antibody test. Again, if the Lyme is hiding

well or your immune system is fair, you will come up normal. Specifically, the

ELISA test missed 56% of confirmed Lyme patients (Archives of Internal Medicine

15:761-0763, 1992).

In another study, it was in some ways worse. In this one the ELISA test missed

over 70% of people with early Lyme disease, and 46% with late manifestations of

Lyme. (Laboratory Medicine 21:299-304, 1990). Meaning, it missed 70 out of 100

people with the early disease. But it was still negative after the bug was in

the body for a long time -- still missing 46 of 100 seriously infected people.

4.. For some, the Lab is a place of perfect science. A place which has purely

objective fact. In Lyme this is not valid. In one study, 55% of the labs could

not accurately identify blood samples with Lyme, which led to the conclusion in

a prestigious infection journal, that: screening tests for Lyme disease are not

adequate (Journal of Clinical Microbiology 35:537-543, 1997).

What About the Western Blot? Is That Definitive?

The Western Blot is merely another antibody test. However, it is more specific

than the ELISA. The test can test for 25 possible " bands " that relate to parts

of Lyme or other infections.

But the routine Western Blot typically done has massive errors. In one serious

test of the Lyme Western Blot testers, there was a stunning finding. They used

nine clearly infected patients and sent their blood to 18 labs. Of the IgG type

of antibody, some labs were wrong. They missed 10 of 18 samples. For the IgM

type of antibody, the labs were occasionally so bad they falsely reported Lyme

as absent in 16 of 18 samples (Arch Intern Med 150:761-763, 1990).

1.. Most physicians are taught to do the ELISA first. If that is positive

then " confirm " with the Western Blot. The big confusion is that this is not a

way to diagnose. It is the CDC's way of generally tracking the movement of Lyme

in locations and states. It is not a way to determine whether you, personally,

have Lyme!

If you use the first method with the confirmation Western Blot you

miss massive numbers of individuals with Lyme (Journal of Clinical Microbiology

34: 10-9, 1996). From this two-stage approach, you may have a sense that Lyme is

entering your state at an increased rate, but that does not address your

individual concern.

2.. The CDC guidelines seem to express clearly to me that these two lab

tests were never intended to be the final measure of whether you have Lyme. They

report the main diagnostic criteria are what you report to your doctor and what

they find on a physical, i.e., " clinical findings. "

(http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/diagnosis.htm)

3.. Another government agency, the conservative FDA, has issued a bulletin

explaining that a person may have active Lyme disease and yet may have a

negative lab result. Meaning, diagnosis should be based on the history of what

happened to you, symptoms, exposure to the tick and physical findings

(http://www.fda.gov/medbull/summer99/lyme.html).

4.. Congress and the President have felt that negative labs have been used

to keep people from needed treatment. United States Congress Public Law 107-116

explains that labs that are negative have no relation to Lyme diagnosis in a

person and refers to the CDC that lab monitoring and testing with and

Western Blot was " developed for national reporting of Lyme disease: it is not

appropriate for clinical diagnosis. "

Re: Lyme Results Igenex

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> > bf, can you give me the specific IgM values? Mel

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