Immuno. wants to look deeper into strep pneumo responses

[eljomom]

Saw an immuno. Saturday morning, who the local immuno. referred us to. I think his hopes were that she could turn up an immune deficiency to get IVIG approved. She was looking at dd's strep pneumo numbers run by dr. t last year....with the 14 . She wants to give her whatever vaccine for that....the ADULT VERSION, then recheck the strep pneumo, but instead look at 25 of the numbers. I balked at this, due to all the hype about immunizations,, etc. Thinking it's not worth it to do this JUST to get IVIG covered. Anyone had this done? I seem to recall someone posting about an immuno. down in Florida affiliated with dr. M who suggested this.

[peglem]

We did this several years ago. My daughter was 12 and weighed @65lbs at the time. I believe its called pneumovax and its used as a test because they have standardized response rates. I looked up the vaccine at the time, before it was given and if I remember correctly, it did not contain any adjuvent or toxic ingredients. The doctor took a baseline measure of the (I think it was 23?) strep pneumo titers before the vaccine. Then 2 or 3 weeks later took another titer check to measure the immune response to the vaccine. There was hardly any response- so we actually revaxed and there was an adequate response the second time. My daughter did not suffer any adverse effects. But 2 1/2 years later, the titers were again non protective, and that played into our finally getting IVIG.

The doc may need some evidence of immune malfunction to get insurance to approve IVIG.

[norcalmom]

No - my DS only had one or these titers, and our original immunologist - who was more of an allergist - wanted to do this too. Its standard procedure - for NORMAL people. Our next immunologist tried to additional informaion using some type of B-cell test (?) anyhow, there was a problems witht he testing lab and they messed up his sample so it never got done, and I opted not to re-stick DS (severe needle phobia).

So, no. I would not re-vax. I've read accounts of kids that have reacted to vaccines, - enough to skip this for me.

[Tamistwins]

My children also have low strep titers. I was told by both Dr. T and Dr. B not to immunize any further. It wreaks havoc on their already compromised immune systems.

[norcalmom]

PS - I've also read what peglem wrote as well - that the follop up testing is usually done at the wrong time. 2-3 weeks may illicit a response, but many kids with problems will go back to where they were before if measured at 2(?) month. I can't remember exactly - you could google it.