Re: New Lyme disease tests at Immunosciences Lab

[Guest guest]

> Hi, all.

>

> As you know, distinguishing between CFS and Lyme disease has been

> notoriously difficult.

>

> Yesterday at the Orthomolecular Health Medicine Society meeting in

> San Francisco I talked to Dr. Ari Vojdani, head of the

> Immunosciences Lab (www.immunoscienceslab.com).

> Rich

To Rich & all,

I just want to mention that my doctor infomed me that

Immunoscinces Lab will no longer accept Medicare soon. But it's no

great loss because " MDL " Medical Diagnostic Labs still does accept

Medicare and they have about the same tests as Immunosciences. Also,

Dr. Mordechai who runs MDL used to work for Immunosciences Lab.

Al

[Guest guest]

Hello Group,

Rich, you mentioned Dr. Ari Vojdani and Immuno Sciences Lab -- does

he believe the new lyme test developed by Dr. Jo Anne Whitaker is

the best, most accurate lyme test?

bg

> > Hi, all.

> >

> > As you know, distinguishing between CFS and Lyme disease has

been

> > notoriously difficult.

> >

> > Yesterday at the Orthomolecular Health Medicine Society meeting

in

> > San Francisco I talked to Dr. Ari Vojdani, head of the

> > Immunosciences Lab (www.immunoscienceslab.com).

> > Rich

>

> To Rich & all,

>

> I just want to mention that my doctor infomed me that

> Immunoscinces Lab will no longer accept Medicare soon. But it's no

> great loss because " MDL " Medical Diagnostic Labs still does accept

> Medicare and they have about the same tests as Immunosciences.

Also,

> Dr. Mordechai who runs MDL used to work for Immunosciences Lab.

>

> Al

[Guest guest]

Hi, bg.

I got the strong impression from Ari yesterday that he believed that

his test panel was the best and most accurate. I don't know

specifically what he thinks about Jo Ann Whitaker's test. I know

that he was not yet aware yesterday of the newly approved test from

Immunetics, based on work sponsored by the NIH. I sent him the news

release about that one today. If you would like to solicit his

views, you could e-mail him at DrAri@.... If you told him that

you were on an internet list with about a thousand people, I would

suspect that you would get an answer!

Rich

> > > Hi, all.

> > >

> > > As you know, distinguishing between CFS and Lyme disease has

> been

> > > notoriously difficult.

> > >

> > > Yesterday at the Orthomolecular Health Medicine Society

meeting

> in

> > > San Francisco I talked to Dr. Ari Vojdani, head of the

> > > Immunosciences Lab (www.immunoscienceslab.com).

> > > Rich

> >

> > To Rich & all,

> >

> > I just want to mention that my doctor infomed me that

> > Immunoscinces Lab will no longer accept Medicare soon. But it's

no

> > great loss because " MDL " Medical Diagnostic Labs still does

accept

> > Medicare and they have about the same tests as Immunosciences.

> Also,

> > Dr. Mordechai who runs MDL used to work for Immunosciences Lab.

> >

> > Al

[Guest guest]

,

Sure. That would be fine with me.

Rich

> Rich, thanks for looking into this. While not a perfect test it

sounds like

> it could give IGeneX a run for its money. I personally spent like

$325 out of

> pocket to do IGeneX 3 day LDA/PCR panal and even took 2 abx at

same time to

> provoke better results and still showed neg for lyme, while their

IgM WB showed

> me pos. Might I have had better chances of getting a pos LDA/PCR

before I

> ever tried rife or Chisolm TF? That is million dollar question

for me. May I

> ask you, do we have permission to distribute your post to another

group to

> educate them as well?

>

>

> In a message dated 3/2/04 8:47:57 AM Eastern Standard Time,

> writes:

> As you know, distinguishing between CFS and Lyme disease has been

> notoriously difficult.

>

> Yesterday at the Orthomolecular Health Medicine Society meeting in

> San Francisco I talked to Dr. Ari Vojdani, head of the

> Immunosciences Lab (www.immunoscienceslab.com). I am not

associated

> with this lab, financially or otherwise, but I think this

> information might be useful to people on this list.

>

> Dr. Vojdani has developed and has started offering new tests for

> Lyme disease. In the past, he as offered PCR tests, and still

does,

> but he has added some additional ones. There are six tests in

all,

> and the whole panel costs $481, according to the brochure he gave

> me. Individual tests are available at lower prices.

>

> The first two tests are for IgG and IgM antibodies for Lyme

peptides

>

> 1 to 7. This test determines whether the B lymphocytes have

> produced these antibodies. I think this might be similar to the

> serological tests offered before, but the actual antibodies he has

> selected may be different ones.

>

> The next two tests look for Lyme-specific T helper cells by

testing

> whether the T helper cells from a blood sample respond to two

> antigens from the Borrellia spirochete.

>

> The final two tests look for Lyme-induced cytokine production from

> immune cells, by provoking a blood sample with Lyme antigens,

> including both TNF-alpha and IL-10.

>

> Dr. Vojdani believes that this is a more sensitive testing

approach

> for Lyme disease than any other now offered. I asked him what he

> thought about the new test announced by the NIH last week, and he

> hadn't yet heard about it. He asked me to send him the news

> release, which I did. So I don't have a comparison of the

> sensitivity and reliability of the two yet.

>

> It's encouraging to see so much activity on trying to improve Lyme

> testing, because this has been a very serious problem.

>

> Rich

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

Rich, I just got done talking with the good doctor. He now knows

about the NIH peptide that they identified thanks to you sending him

the information I presume. I get that his new extensive testing will

include this NIH peptide and 6 more (total of 7), so it will be very

extensive. I asked him how does this test doing cytokines differ

from having had cytokines tested in blood in the past and he said it

is totally different approach in that they are culturing your

lymphnodes and seeing if cytokines are produced, or something like

that. The test also shows if one has been pos in the past and

currently and does not depend on abx for challenging to get better

results like a PCR test. In theory this would sound like a superior

test. It is so new you won't find it on the website and it costs

$433 and he will have more understanding of the results 6 months down

the road even though the test should be the same at that time. So I

reckon I support having this test done if you're crazy about testing

and want the latest greatest for yourself. That's all I know now.

Rich, I did ask him about whether the test will detect things like

STARI and he didn't seem to be up on STARI/Lonestar tick stuff, so

perhaps you can educate him in that, but that was kind of a let down

that he did not know that. It is as if he trusts the CDC and is

using their established criteria, which as you may know, the CDC is

not always on top of things and even in denial at times. But at

least with this test it sounds like if you have a pos you can hang

your hat on it and assume you're definitely a lyme victim.

> Hi, all.

>

> As you know, distinguishing between CFS and Lyme disease has been

> notoriously difficult.

>

> Yesterday at the Orthomolecular Health Medicine Society meeting in

> San Francisco I talked to Dr. Ari Vojdani, head of the

> Immunosciences Lab (www.immunoscienceslab.com). I am not

associated

> with this lab, financially or otherwise, but I think this

> information might be useful to people on this list.

>

> Dr. Vojdani has developed and has started offering new tests for

> Lyme disease. In the past, he as offered PCR tests, and still

does,

> but he has added some additional ones. There are six tests in all,

> and the whole panel costs $481, according to the brochure he gave

> me. Individual tests are available at lower prices.

>

> The first two tests are for IgG and IgM antibodies for Lyme

peptides

> 1 to 7. This test determines whether the B lymphocytes have

> produced these antibodies. I think this might be similar to the

> serological tests offered before, but the actual antibodies he has

> selected may be different ones.

>

> The next two tests look for Lyme-specific T helper cells by testing

> whether the T helper cells from a blood sample respond to two

> antigens from the Borrellia spirochete.

>

> The final two tests look for Lyme-induced cytokine production from

> immune cells, by provoking a blood sample with Lyme antigens,

> including both TNF-alpha and IL-10.

>

> Dr. Vojdani believes that this is a more sensitive testing approach

> for Lyme disease than any other now offered. I asked him what he

> thought about the new test announced by the NIH last week, and he

> hadn't yet heard about it. He asked me to send him the news

> release, which I did. So I don't have a comparison of the

> sensitivity and reliability of the two yet.

>

> It's encouraging to see so much activity on trying to improve Lyme

> testing, because this has been a very serious problem.

>

> Rich