Help with Lyme Disease please

[PIK]

Hello everybody. I have had headaches and stiff neck and it was suggested to me by some on here to look into Lyme. Though I know quite a bit about the strep realted illnesses, I haven't really researched Lyme and coninfections that much.

 

I had gotten blood tests for Lyme back in September and these were the results:

 

Lyme IgG/IgM AB which was negative at <91 as well as

LYME DISEASE AB, QUANT, IGM which was also negative at <91

Anything less than 91 was considered negative. Does this mean I don't have Lyme, or is there further more conclusive testing that I should ask to be performed? I'm just really confused because I can't seem to find clear information. Also, I seem to have read somewhere that you can get it from mice too???!!! I thought it was a tick borne thing

Please Lyme experts, please shed some light on all my questions. Thanks.

[sf_mom]

I am not sure how you tested for Lyme but it doesn't appear your results are reporting specific bands.

 

The reason many use Igenex is they report/test for a wider array of antibody response to proteins of the BB (bands). For example: bands 31, 34, 39, 23, are Lyme specific bands. I've attached quick review on testing plus the bands and their meaning below to give you an overview of testing.

 

I was positive for bands 18, 31, 34, 41 if I am remembering correctly. It is not a CDC positive result but because many of the bands were Lyme specific we followed up the test by looking for the antigen of band 31. An antigen is like finding DNA of the bacteria and I was positive.

 

http://www.lymedisease.org/lyme101/lyme_disease/lyme_diagnosis.html

 

Igenex's reports on most of these bands. Below is what each bands represents. Due to the type of headaches you have explained on the forum, I have always felt you may have Babesia. Testing for co-infections is a separate test. You are only able to test for two of strains of Babesia that are common in humans B. Microti and B Duncani.

 

18: p18 flagellin fragment
20: cross-reactive for Borrellia
21: unknown
22: specific for Bb, probably really the 23/25 band
23-25: outer surface protein C (OspC), specific for Bb
28: outer surface protein D (OspD); Oms28; specific for Bb
30: OspA substrate binding protein; common in European and one California strain
31: outer surface protein A (OspA), specific for Bb
34: outer surface protein B (OspB); specific for Bb
35: specific for Bb
37: specific for Bb
38: cross-reactive for Bb
39: is a major protein of Bb flagellin; specific for Bb
41: flagellin protein of all spirochetes; this is usually the first to appear after a Bb infection
45: cross-reactive for all Borellia (sometimes people with Lyme who have this band positive also have the co-infection Ehrlichiosis)
50: cross-reactive for all Borrellia
55: cross-reactive for all Borrellia
57: cross-reactive for all Borrellia
58: unknown but may be a heat-shock Bb protein
60: cross reactive for all Borrellia
66: cross-reactive for all Borrelia, common in all bacteria
83: specific antigen for the Lyme bacterium, probably a cytoplasmic membrane
93: unknown, probably the same protein in band 83, just migrates differently in some patients

[msimon3]

Pik, many of the generic Lyme antibody tests are simply the Elisa test, which tests for antibodies to a synethetic protein modeled after a single variant of B. burgdorferi. This test has a broadly contested false negative rate.

 

There are other tests that you can take, including Western Blot, as sf_mom indicated, and a nice list of the available types of tests can be found here:

http://www.columbia-lyme.org/patients/ld_lab_test.html

 

Overall, you might want to keep in mind that testing for Lyme is difficult, and there is no single test, or set of tests, that is both highly specific and highly sensitive, and therefore Lyme diagnosis remains a clinical diagnosis. You might also have an infection that is not Lyme, but has encephalitic or meningitic symptoms.

[rowingmom]

Overall, you might want to keep in mind that testing for Lyme is difficult, and there is no single test, or set of tests, that is both highly specific and highly sensitive, and therefore Lyme diagnosis remains a clinical diagnosis. You might also have an infection that is not Lyme, but has encephalitic or meningitic symptoms.

 

ie, bartonella, babesia, powassan virus.