Lyme Disease Tests - ELISA, PCR, Western Blot, Lyme IFA, Lyme Dot Blot Asay

[Guest guest]

The following is from " Guessing Game " (6/4/09 by Stefanie Baum in the

LongIslandPress.com ) at

http://www.longislandpress.com/2009/06/04/a-guessing-game/

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(paragraphs not in order)

According to Cameron, M.D., a member of the International Lyme and

Associated Diseases Society, " Currently there is no reliable test to determine

if someone has contracted Lyme disease or is cured of it. False positives and

false negatives are far more common… Doctors who are experienced in recognizing

Lyme disease will treat when symptoms typical of the illness are preset, even

without a positive test, in an effort to prevent the development of chronic Lyme

disease. "

According to IGeneX, " Lyme bacteria are not always detectable in the whole

blood, even in active disease. The bacteria like to hide…every patient responds

differently to an infection and antibodies may only be present for a short

time. "

The most common Lyme test is called ELISA, which is mostly used among general

practitioners not specializing in Lyme disease diagnosis and treatment. However,

the ELISA test is considered to be the least sensitive, only detecting the

patient's IgM and IgG levels, which are the body's reaction to the Lyme

bacteria. Other Lyme tests are the Lyme IFA, which is good for detecting the

disease while it is still new, or relatively infant within the body. The Lyme

Dot Blot Assay test searches for bacteria present in urine and a Polymerase

Chain Reaction test, which is a critically specific test, can detect the disease

in nearly all stages of development. Another form of testing, which is the test

that Morante had taken, was the Western Blot, which takes a literal picture of

the antibodies within the blood that the body develops in reaction to the

infection.