HAS ANYONE'S CHILD EVER HAD A SPINAL TAP?

[trintiybella]

Did it tell you anything that you did not already know. Thanks!

[PowPow]

Nope. nothing new from it. It was to rule out NMDA encephalitis.

[trintiybella]

Is it able to tell if there is strep or bartonella bacteria?

[PowPow]

Not for our purposes- meaning, in the case of a bacterial meningitis, then, yes I suppose.

there are tests for bartonella in the CSF, but I would imagine that someone with bacteria in their spinal fluid would have acute symptoms, as well.

If she had a spinal tap there are more things to look for than just those.

Is a doctor recommending it?

 

Did you see the geneticist yet?

[momofadult]

There are a lot of things a spinal tap can tell you depending on which tests are run on the fluid. It is done when there is a suspicion of other problems. It can diagnose or rule out conditions with similar symptoms and/or provide additional information that might be useful in treatment. For example, my son’s spinal tap showed he also had cerebral folate deficiency that they addressed with high doses of folate (leucovorin). We would have never known that he had cerebral folate deficiency (which has serious ramifications if left untreated) without CSF testing since serum folate is normal in this condition. They speculate, but do not know for sure, that perhaps the autoimmune reaction in the brain may have triggered antibodies against his brain folate receptors. NIMH did some CSF testing in their PANS study so it will be interesting to see what they found. They tested cytokines but I don’t know what else was tested.