Standard Lyme Tests Are Missing
Standard Lyme Tests Are Missing
74.9%
74.9%
Of People With Lyme Disease
Of People With Lyme Disease
Which is another reason to...
Which is another reason to...
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A nationwide patient assistance program offered by Ferndale Foundation in coordination with the Lyme Patients Assistance Group to provide assistance for initial Lyme-related lab tests to patients who demonstrate true financial need.
The CDC recommends only using FDA-approved Lyme tests...
However, there aren't any FDA-approved tests for Lyme disease.
Laboratories use different methods and criteria for interpreting their own tests, sometimes resulting in a positive test from one lab and a negative result from another.
The CDC/IDSA preferred two-tiered test system misses approximately 54% of patients. (2010 Stricker Minerva)
Due to the inaccuracy of the two-tiered testing system and high number of false negative tests we recommend physicians and patients order only the Western Blot test and not the ELISA.
Other bacteria besides Borrelia burgdorferi may produce the 45, 58, 66, and 73 kDa bands.
CDC Western blot surveillance criteria fails to include the 31 and 34 kDa bands. Antibodies with these molecular weights correspond to the OspA and OspB proteins of B. burgdorferi, which are considered to be among the most species-specific proteins of the organism.
Some patients might have an IgM response at the time of the EM rash. The IgG response tends to start several weeks after infection and peak months to years later. In some patients, the IgM response can remain elevated- in others it might decline, regardless of whether or not treatment is successful.
Many Lyme disease experts believe it is a mistake to exclude 31 and 34 kDa antibody proteins from the list of significant bands.
Lyme disease patients may not test positive for exposure to B. burgdorferi because their antibodies to the organism are bound up in immune complexes.
An indeterminate number of patients with late or chronic Lyme disease are simply seronegative for unknown reasons.
If the IgM or IgG sections of the test had 31 kDa, 34 kDa or 83-93 kDa it is fairly good confirmation of past infection along with a current one.
Dr. Sam Donta- 52% of patients with chronic disease are negative by ELISA, but positive by Western blot (2002).
Testing for Borreliosis- by Dr. Charles Crist
CDC states.... It is possible for someone who was infected with Lyme disease to test negative because: Some people who receive antibiotics (e.g., doxycycline) early in disease (within the first few weeks after tick bite) may not develop antibodies or may only develop them at levels too low to be detected by the test. Source
"Seven participating laboratories performed approximately
3.4 million LD tests on approximately
2.4 million specimens nationwide at an
estimated cost of $492 million."
Link Here
https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC4646413&blobtype=pdf