Circulating Immune Complexes Test

[mama2alex]

We had a phone consult with Dr. K this morning and he wants us to get a Circulating Immune Complexes test. We've never heard of this before - has anyone else done this? What do the results tell you?

[MomWithOCDSon]

We had a phone consult with Dr. K this morning and he wants us to get a Circulating Immune Complexes test. We've never heard of this before - has anyone else done this? What do the results tell you?

Interesting . . . we just saw Dr. K. in person 3 weeks ago, and this terminology never came up. Rather, he just gave us a prescription/order for the normal immune panel, plus ASO and AntiDnase B. Maybe he's hit upon a new protocol? Or something about your history calls for something atypical?

 

I'll be interested to hear what anyone else may know about this, too!

[lynn]

Dr. B asked us to get CD3, one of the immune complexes, tested.

[mama2alex]

I found out this morning that this refers to CD1, 2, 3, and 4, but I still don't understand the relevance. Anyone know?

[wornoutmom]

From Wikipedia:

 

"An immune complex is formed from the integral binding of an antibody to a soluble antigen. The bound antigen acting as a specific epitope, bound to an antibody is referred to as a singular immune complex. After an antigen-antibody reaction, the immune complexes can be subject to any of a number of responses, including complement deposition, opsonization, phagocytosis, or processing by proteases. Red blood cells carrying CR1-receptors on their surface may bind C3b-decorated immune complexes and transport them to phagocytes, mostly in liver and spleen, and return back to the general circulation.

Immune complexes may themselves cause disease when they are deposited in organs, e.g. in certain forms of vasculitis. This is the third form of hypersensitivity in the Gell-Coombs classification, called Type III hypersensitivity.

Immune complex deposition is a prominent feature of several autoimmune diseases, including systemic lupus erythematosus, cryoglobulinemia, rheumatoid arthritis, scleroderma and Sjögren's syndrome.

[edit]Ex"

 

Not sure how it relates specifically to your child but I'll be keeping an eye out on this post to see if anyone else does!

[jayjay]

We had a phone consult with Dr. K this morning and he wants us to get a Circulating Immune Complexes test. We've never heard of this before - has anyone else done this? What do the results tell you?

 

Dr, B. explained immune complexes to us at our last visit. I'm embarrassed to say that it felt like he was speaking a foreign language. My son is getting IVIG tomorrow so we did not get the test done, but he believes it is another tool that he can use to help diagnos PANDAS.

[CandKRich]

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Edited August 12, 2013 by CandKRich

[jayjay]

We had a phone consult with Dr. K this morning and he wants us to get a Circulating Immune Complexes test. We've never heard of this before - has anyone else done this? What do the results tell you?

 

Dr, B. explained immune complexes to us at our last visit. I'm embarrassed to say that it felt like he was speaking a foreign language. My son is getting IVIG tomorrow so we did not get the test done, but he believes it is another tool that he can use to help diagnos PANDAS.

 

 

Hi jayjay -

 

I just wanted to say a quick "hey." My younger son had IVIG at Dr. B's two weeks ago, and we will also be there tomorrow for Day 2 of my older son's IVIG. Today went really great! I believe you and I will be the only ones there for IVIG tomorrow... I will pop in and say "hello." Best of luck!!!

 

- Karen

Looking forward to meeting you!

[kimballot]

I am trying to grasp the whole immune complexes idea myself, because my son's were elevated. From what I got from Dr. B.... this is futher evidence of an immune disorder and the immune complexes can deposit in joints. This is likely one factor contributing to my son's frequent joint pain when he is in a PANDAS exacerbation.

[momaine]

My dd's C3d was extremely elevated. (0-8 is normal and hers was 39 the first time and 19 the second time) The only thing I found on-line was something that said it is normally elevated in Rhumatoid arthritis and Lupus, which are both autoimmune illnesses. My guess is that it can also be elevated in other autoimmune disorders, like PANDAS since my dd doesn't have symptoms of either of those but fits the classic PANDAS diagnosis. Wish I could be more help.

 

Angela

[kimballot]

To be honest with you, I think the docs are figuring out how this all fits in. It is a sign of an immune problem. If everyone has elevated levels, then they may be on to something that insurance will cover!

[LNN]

My Pandas son's C3D was 50. My maybe-pandas daughter's was 25. So the past 2 years of "Mom, my muscles really hurt" were very real. Sometimes I wonder - if adults got this disease and were able to articulate how lousy they feel, would there be such a controversy? The naysayers can continue to muddy the waters, but the more tests we start to put in our arsenal (Cam Kinase, pneummo titers, C3D, IG sub-classes), the harder it is for them to say Pandas isn't real.

[kimballot]

My Pandas son's C3D was 50. My maybe-pandas daughter's was 25. So the past 2 years of "Mom, my muscles really hurt" were very real. Sometimes I wonder - if adults got this disease and were able to articulate how lousy they feel, would there be such a controversy? The naysayers can continue to muddy the waters, but the more tests we start to put in our arsenal (Cam Kinase, pneummo titers, C3D, IG sub-classes), the harder it is for them to say Pandas isn't real.

 

LLm - you are so right - the more tests that show a PANDAS pattern, the better. PANDAS is not just elevated ASOs. I just wish someone was collecting data on all of this to publish. We need some graduate student to get approval to collect retrospective information from all the docs and run some statistics on the numbers.