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***VIP DX ANNOUNCEMENT*** Serology test is now available!!

VillageLife

Senior Member
Messages
674
Location
United Kingdom
BRILLIANT NEWS!!

Human Gamma Retrovirus Test Now Available

VIP Dx is pleased to announce the availability, beginning Monday, August 23, 2010, of the WPI licensed serology test to detect antibodies to Human Gamma Retroviruses that include XMRV and its variants human MLV-related viruses.

http://www.vipdx.com/
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
I haven't been following the testing stuff since it was all a bit far off but is this test definitive, then? With serology but without culture (is that different)? Without agreement with other major labs & players (unless I've missed that they've got that)?

Sorry that my question is so uninformed!

And if this is it, does anyone have any idea what UK people can do? I don't want to use the REDlabs test since I gather it's not as sensitive and that false negatives are quite possible.
 

MEG

Senior Member
Messages
242
Location
Asheville, NC
Does anyone know what Hunter Hopkins, Lucinda Bateman and others are suggesting we do about this test...

Exciting times
 

Sunshine

Senior Member
Messages
208
Location
UK
Jim, ideally I'd not pick one test only, although I'd probably go for the antibody test.

If you must pick one though have a think:

Antibody - if you want to show an immune response and pick up 'other MLV's. (The immune reaction to, the virus). HIV test, is an antibody test.
Culture - if you want to show you have an infectious virus in your own blood. (The physical virus).
 

BEG

Senior Member
Messages
1,032
Location
Southeast US
For those who are trying to get preapproval through Medicare or Medicare Advantage plan:

The CPT codes for:

serology test = 86790

culture = 87798
 

xrayspex

Senior Member
Messages
1,111
Location
u.s.a.
sunshine, I saw that post before, could you please explain that to me even further? I still don't totally understand in my laymens terms what that dif means in practicality.
 

muffin

Senior Member
Messages
940
RATHER CURIOUS that this would come out on the VERY SAME DAY as the NIH Teleconference: "Scientists to discuss research on XMRV in blood, chronic fatigue syndrome"
Now WHY would they do this on the same day????? Maybe because they KNOW that the Lo/Alter paper is very positive? Let's hope so.


http://www.nih.gov/news/health/aug2010/cc-23.htm
 

Rrrr

Senior Member
Messages
1,591
to answer WHICH test to get, someone explained it this way:

The serology test may not produce antibodies if you have been sick with a retrovirus for a very long time. In that case, there may be a false negative. If that happens (if you get a negative serology test result), you can then get the culture test, which would grow the virus itself. it is the one test that will confirm a live virus in you. To get one test (serology) and then the other one (culture) will cost more than getting both at the same time. but if the serology is positive, you will not need to get the culture test.
 

Sasha

Fine, thank you
Messages
17,863
Location
UK
to answer WHICH test to get, someone explained it this way:

The serology test may not produce antibodies if you have been sick with a retrovirus for a very long time. In that case, there may be a false negative. If that happens (if you get a negative serology test result), you can then get the culture test, which would grow the virus itself. it is the one test that will confirm a live virus in you. To get one test (serology) and then the other one (culture) will cost more than getting both at the same time. but if the serology is positive, you will not need to get the culture test.

Thanks, Rrrr, that's a very clear and helpful explanation.
 

Sunshine

Senior Member
Messages
208
Location
UK
Hi xrayspex

A culture test involves taking your blood and 'growing' the virus from your blood which is time consuming and costly. It does however mean that it's there in a dish for all to see, no denial that one 'has' the virus and it's infectious. An antibody test shows your body has detected the virus and launched an immune response against it, this is cheaper far quicker to get the results back on and shows that your body isn't ignoring a 'harmless' virus.

What would be really interesting to know, is are the sickest people with ME/CFS with active infectious XMRV (shown by + culture), possibly lacking XMRV antibodies (new serology test) and cannot launch an immune response to it. Zero published data on that.

One can only know if one has XMRV currently by doing both tests. (If someone 'just' had an antibody test which was negative, theoretically one would therefore not be aware of still maybe having XMRV unless having a PCR/culture test done in addition to the antibody test).

Even then we are presumably not 100% sure we don't have XMRV as other tests may come out in the near future that detect XMRV outside of the blood, such as in the spinal fluid or respiratory tract/saliva and maybe other tissues in the future. E.g. Heart biopsy? A recent patent on XMRV testing includes CSF (spinal fluid)....which is rather interesting as that would show XMRV in the central nervous system = neuro disease.

ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) is a neuro disease and lots of biomedical research shows neuro abnormalities in ME and CFS, especially very high lactate. This group of people then are shown to be positive in an FDA test for XMRV in very high numbers.......hmm..... I wonder what that could mean...... :eek:
 

xrayspex

Senior Member
Messages
1,111
Location
u.s.a.
thanks, to help my murky brain this "morning", does that mean that if you only got one test to start with that the culture would be a better way to be sure whether you have had xmrv exposure ever?
 
Messages
39
I bet the delay on offering the serology test was related to the delay on the Alter paper. I bet they wanted to be really, really sure of themselves.