Guest guest Posted March 6, 2011 Report Share Posted March 6, 2011 > > Notes I found in my file with test results says 41 is for flagella. Many organisism have flagella so you need to have at least one other band positive to indicate lyme - according to , MD criteria. jo Yes, p41 is the flagella protein, and it is NOT specific for Borrelia burgdorferi. However, only a few other spirochetes like treponema (syphilis) are known to potentially cross-react with this band. Possibly some dental spirochetes (e.g. variations of treponema denticalo) could cross-react as well, but there does not seem to be solid proof for that in the literature. Keep in mind that the Bb flagella is not a normal 'flagella', it is fully internal unlike the flagella of most other bacteria. IDSA often suggests that many other bacteria and viruses can cause a band p41, but there is NO proof for that. The problem is IDSA is very quick to talk about 'false positives' when the patients very likely have Lyme but got a wrong diagnosis (e.g. they were bitten by a tick, have all the common symptoms and a positive bloodtest, but they didn't have an EM or they are not from an endemic area). This problem is extremely obvious from the well known 'Overdiagnosis' paper written by Steere c.s. long ago. My guess is that if they really check the research again, cross-reactions for band p41 will prove very rare except for a few other spirochetes (relatively rare diseases nowadays, so shouldn't be a factor for normal screening tests). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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