Ellispot results

[justy]

Not my results but just wondering if you can have 'more' or 'less' positive results - does a higher number = more active or more recent infection or just a better immune response?

My family members results are +2 Bb fully antigen
+5 Bb Osp mix
0 Bb LFA1

also what do he different names mean? Their CD57 is good at 197.

 

[msf]

Hi Justy, I think the answer to your question would be yes. I think 2 is used as the cut off by the makers of the test, although they initially used 3 until they found that 2 gave better sensitivity (presumably without too much loss of specificity).

As far as I understand it, the different names refer to different parts of the outer surface of the Borrelia microbe. So fully antigen would be the whole thing (I think) while OSP stands for outer surface protein. I'm not sure about LFA, but I'm sure someone on here knows.

 

[Ema]

LFA-1 is leukocyte function associated antigen 1.

It seems to have something to do with an autoimmune response but I'm not clear on the details.

ETA maybe this is helpful:

"The Lyme-Disease can trigger an autoimmune reaction. The surface antigen OSP (Outer Surface Protein) A is highly similar to the human protein LFA-1, which can lead to misdirection of the immunological reaction against the host."

 

[justy]

So this is a VERY definite positive result?

 

[msf]

Hi Justy, I doubt anyone on here can answer your question definitively - if it is from Infectolabs, doesn't it give their interpretation of the results? When I had the Yersinia one done, which came back as +2, it said something like 'this is a borderline positive result for Yersinia'.