[lymeeducator]

I mentioned Armin/Invecto since they are looking at T-cell responses to pathogens. Much of the prolonged antibiotic treatment is no longer common practice. It damages the GI, suppresses portions of the immune system and is in many cases bypassed by 2 resistant forms of Lyme (round body starvation form & biofilm colonies). Most of my testing has been through Igenex, which has a lot of experience with antibody testing that places like Quest screw up. The typical Western Blot for Borellia (Lyme) is not a frequent test for many of the labs and requires 5 - 7 IgM or IgG that won't form in the patient because their immune system is too suppressed to manifest all of them. For example, the outer protein of Lyme does not have to shift and result in another antibody presentation because the host immune system has not forced it to. The CDC spec deliberately ignores two specific antibody proteins OSP 31, 34 as do the common tests and instructs most labs not to reveal which antibodies the patient has. Therefore, that patient might have some, but not all of the "required" antibodies.

As I mentioned above, metals & mold toxins can generate a lot of inflammation in some people that manifest as "foggy brain", joint aches, etc. It takes time and diagnostic testing paired with treatment protocols. Some people cannot process Aluminum and Mercury forms out of their body without relying on Glutathione (limited detox pathways, start with HLA genetic SNPs).

It's a good thing most western medicine doctors never prescribe expensive pharmaceuticals long term ... oh wait ;-)

[erentz]

Curious about your thoughts on a patient that tested both the Quest and IgeneX immunoblots at the same time. The Quest showing 5 positive bands. And the IgeneX no positive bands. Then repeated the same two tests four months later at the same time with the same results. So Quest repeatedly CDC positive, IgeneX repeatedly negative. How would you interpret that?

[lymeeducator]

I would ask which Quest lab specifically ran the test as lab quality can vary. I have not seen mainstream labs return all of the antibody stains present in some time, they usually indicate (+/-) for IgM (less likely) or IgG (more likely). The count is also usually indicated (titer level). It also depends which antibody proteins are present. Many of them overlap with other pathogens (IE: 41 covers most of the spirochete class: Borellia, Leptospirosis, Syphilis, etc). It depends on current & historical symptoms and markers like C3a/TGF-b/MMP-9/CD57,8 and would probably try other tests for markers, possibly another Lyme specific test at a different, but specialized lab like Galaxy Diagnostics (well known for Bart), Fry labs or another in NY whose name escapes me.