I know he also treats autism. Appreciate any input. You can PM me. Five in my family see him. He is wonderful and brilliant. My sister flies from Tampa to Cleveland to see him.
My nephew was treated by him and is doing well. He is agressive but very integrative. Others believe that a Lyme infection can last longer, and that long-term treatment is needed. These courageous doctors help patients get better despite the position of the Infectious Disease Society and at great risk, by the way, of being reprimanded by their local medical board.
Find a support group by searching online in your area. I live in Greenville Ohio in desperate need to find a Dr who will treat my lyme disease, been going on 4yrs. I hope you can find a doctor with one of these links, good luck to you. We live in central Maryland. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. More sensitive testing would recognize and use smaller, more specific pieces of the bug that are known to be reactive, not the whole thing lumped into one.
First, the test itself is not sensitive enough. Second, the Borrelia microbe curtails immune response so that the signals necessary to trigger a positive result are lower. Together, it is a profoundly unreliable system.
If a microphone recorded sound, it would need the sound to be at a certain decibel volume level to be able to record it, but the microphone would also need to be of good quality with a decent level of sensitivity. If either the volume was too low or the microphone was of low quality not designed to record lower and higher notes, just the central ranges , then the sound would not register or be accurately recorded.
If both were present — poor sound output and low microphone quality - the chances of a great recording would be doubly jeopardized. This is how it is with ELISA testing for Lyme disease, and why it is so crucial to combine laboratory findings with the clinical picture to make an accurate diagnosis.
Indirect lab tests alone, especially ELISA tests, leave a lot to be desired in terms of sensitivity, and many very ill patients will go undiagnosed. It detects antibodies against B.
Therefore, it is looking for an immune response but is not as variable based on time after infection in comparison with the ELISA. It should not be used instead of a Western Blot. The IFA test is useful when run with other tests, to make up part of the picture. It is not necessarily a stand-alone test and is not necessarily diagnostic in and of itself. While concerns have arisen over time as to the specificity of the IFA for Lyme-specific antibodies and for its potential for cross-reactivity with antibodies to other spirochetes, studies have shown that with high quality testing procedures and highly experienced lab technicians, the IFA test has good specificity and sensitivity.
Therefore the IFA should be run through a lab that specializes in Lyme testing to increase its validity. The Western Blot test is one of the foremost tests used in the evaluation of Lyme disease. It is also an indirect test, as are the ELISA and IFA; however it is a more sensitive test if performed by a laboratory that looks for all the bands that are related to Borrelia. IgM and IgG antibodies are evaluated separately, with the IgM being detected as early as one week post-exposure.
Unfortunately, as has been the case with anything so far relating to CDC criteria, the CDC has also played a role in creating limitations in Western Blot testing and reporting. A Western blot reports certain numbers, or "bands", which can be positive, negative, or indeterminate. The bands represent certain antigens, which are the parts of the bacteria that the immune system reacts to.
There is a discrepancy as to which bands are clinically significant, and how many of the bands need to be positive to get a positive result. FDA-approved, commercially available kits such as the Mardx Marblot are restricted from reporting all of the bands.
These rules were set up in accordance with the CDC surveillance criteria. Private laboratories that are not beholden to these rules and criteria are free to produce tests that actually help people get an accurate assessment.
In IgM testing, by CDC criteria, two of the following bands must be positive to record a positive result:. IGeneX, on the other hand, a U. Their research has shown that the 31, 34 and bands are significant and quite specific to Borrelia infection. The 41 band, on the other hand, shows a lot of cross-reactivity with other flagella-bearing organisms, so a positive 41 can be indicative of other types of infections. Clearly, the expanded IGeneX criteria give a more rounded and inclusive view of Lyme immune recognition, and allow for a more clinically helpful assessment.
Many Lyme-literate medical doctors and experts in Lyme disease believe that just one positive or even equivocal of the above bands is clinically significant. At least five bands must be positive out of a possible 10 to be regarded as positive according to the CDC.
The test looks for 10 bands: 18, , 28, 30, 39, 41, 45, 58, 66 and kDa. Results showing four positive bands, or five equivocal borderline bands, report as negative and are completely disregarded. Bands 31 kDa and 34 kDa - both of which are significant antigens that appear later in the immune response and are highly Lyme specific - so specific, in fact, that these bands represent the antigens used in developing the Lyme vaccine - are also excluded. How ironic that these antigens were relevant enough for developing the Lyme disease vaccine, but not relevant enough to be included in the laboratory reporting for Lyme.
By the way, the Lyme vaccine is no longer available due to numerous lawsuits by people who believed that the vaccine made them sick and actually infected them with Lyme disease; the manufacturer cites "low sales" as the reason for the withdrawal in Such is the challenge of Lyme disease testing. Although the most clinically useful of all indirect tests, a positive Western Blot still only suggests exposure to Lyme disease, it does not diagnose Lyme disease.
Along with testing for Borrelia, it is imperative to test for co-infections. Information gained from co-infection testing can make a significant difference to the treatment path chosen. Different microbes require different medications and different herbs to counter them. Probably the best example of this is Babesia.
Babesia is a parasite, while Borrelia is a bacterium. The medications that work well for Borrelia will not work well for Babesia. The consensus among hundreds of Lyme-treating doctors is that undetected and untreated co-infections are one of the key reasons for treatment failure in Lyme disease.
There are a few different ways to test for co-infections. The tests done are IgG and IgM. In interpreting these tests, I regard an elevation in either antibody clinically significant when combined with a symptomatic patient. IGeneX criteria for all the co-infections listed above are the following:. As an example, if a patient has an IgM level of 20 for a particular infection, I would consider treating that co-infection, especially if the symptom picture matches that of the co-infection.
Remember, for co-infections as well as Borrelia, the diagnosis is based primarily on clinical presentation. The Fluorescent In-Situ Hybridization FISH test is a direct test - it does not rely on immune response and is a way to visualize the microbes directly - that uses a sample examined as a thin smear in order to identify and mark the ribosomal RNA.
Under a microscope, the bugs, whose presence indicates an active, current infection, literally glow in the dark. It is performed on whole blood, since the parasites exist within the red blood cells themselves.
The FISH test actually shows the microbes fluorescing under a microscope. Bartonella, rod-shaped bacteria, have been stained with a substance specific to mark them so a positive result will reflect the sighting of characteristic bacteria of this shape.
FISH tests have a high level of specificity so there are very few false positives. Remember though, a negative FISH does not necessarily mean that the infection is not present. It simply means that it was not detected in that particular sample. The answer is that the more information we can gather, the better. Testing can give confirmation on a suspected illness, shed light on which co-infections are present and help in assessing the severity of an infection.
For example, if a patient tests indeterminate on the Lyme Western Blot but has a positive FISH test for Babesia and Babesia duncani antibodies at 80 or , then they may have a dominant Babesia infection, and treatment should start there.
Similarly, if a patient shows a positive PCR for Borrelia, a positive IgM Western Blot, and all negative co-infection testing, and unless they have symptoms that are pathognomonic of a specific co-infection, their initial treatment should be tailored around the Borrelia. However, another person can have positive antibodies to Borrelia, Babesia, Bartonella and Rickettsia, and in that case, we know we have a complex situation that is going to require several different medications to address them all.
Lab tests are very useful and should be regarded as important pieces of the puzzle. Alone, they do not rule in or out infection, but when combined with history, symptoms, tick exposures and so on can give very useful information to help shape the big picture. This is not a complete list of tests as there are literally dozens of tests that may be useful in various scenarios. The CD is not so much a test to detect Lyme disease as it is an immune marker that tends to be low in the presence of Lyme disease.
CD or cluster designation markers are identifying markers on certain immune cells called T cells and NK cells. They give cells their variance in appearance and function. Through laboratory testing, we can measure the number of cells that carry a certain designation, either on the T cell or NK cell. Clinically, measuring certain CD markers can help evaluate certain illnesses. Learn more about why doctors and patients trust the tests offered by IGeneX.
For the most up to date and accurate information and articles about ticks and tick-borne diseases, please visit Tick Talk Resource. Why IGeneX? Shopping Cart. Share Identify doctors trained in the diagnosis and treatment of tick-borne diseases.
Do your research and get referrals. Call ahead and ask questions. A few basic questions to consider asking upfront include the following: What is your experience in treating patients with tick-borne diseases? How do you diagnose diseases? Do you use any specific labs or lab tests to confirm diagnosis? Do you test for coinfections?
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