Lyme Disease Support Group
Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere. It is now one of the fastest growing infectious diseases in the U.S. Lyme disease is caused by infection with the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, and is primarily transmitted to humans as well as dogs, horses and other domesticated animals by the bite of infected ticks.
Just got my blood test results. Not sure how to interpret them.
EIA - Negative
WB IgG - Negative (Absent on all bands)
WB IgM - Present on band P41 only, other bands absent
I had my blood tested at Labcorp and paid myself as I have no health insurance. I have read that Labcorp, as well as other labs, are not very accurate when running the Lyme tests.
From what I have read, a positive P41 band can mean I may have some other issue, which most likely is the case...
Please comment
Jay
EIA - Negative
WB IgG - Negative (Absent on all bands)
WB IgM - Present on band P41 only, other bands absent
I had my blood tested at Labcorp and paid myself as I have no health insurance. I have read that Labcorp, as well as other labs, are not very accurate when running the Lyme tests.
From what I have read, a positive P41 band can mean I may have some other issue, which most likely is the case...
Please comment
Jay
I am no doctor, but I often read and hear of people with lyme disease who do not test CDC positive (their criteria were developed for reporting purposes only, they agree that lyme is a clinical diagnosis, and they do not include the 2 specific lyme bands in their criteria, evidentially due to the lyme vaccine that was on the market)m but usually have a positive 41 band. All I know is that band 41 is specific to bacteria with flagella, such as the Bb bacteria that causes lyme, but, also bacteria that are often associated with dental problems/infections.
I will try to find more info on #41.
In the meantime, if you have not already visited the ILADS site, please do. It has a lot of good information, including Dr. Burrascano's Diagnostic Hints:
http://www.ilads.org/lyme_disease/B_guidelines_12_17_08.pdf
Do not be overwhelmed by the length and depth of this guide. There is a table of contents which you can use to zero in on questions for which you want answers. There is also a (long!) list of symptoms which are often associated with lyme.
Well wishes :)
http://www.ilads.org/lyme_disease/B_guidelines_12_17_08.pdf
I would recommend that you make an appointment with a lyme literate doctor who can make a clinical diagnosis. Appointments can be expensive, but the cost of letting (possible) lyme go untreated is more costly.
There is a lab, Igenex, who a lot of people use for lyme testing. They test for more bands, including more lyme specific bands.
I hope this helps!
The link to the lyme doctor's blog is:
http://lymemd.blogspot.com/search?q=single+41+band+positive
In a previous post, he found band #41 to be significant, in the absence of dental infections (or syphillus?). In the entry that I found on the above link, he states that the jury is still out...