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I keep reading different amounts. I have read 67%, 87% and on the Dr Oz show about XMRV and CFS, he said 95% tested positive.
So which is it??
Ta
Thanks
So which one do we tell the public?? 95% as Dr Oz did??.
My understanding is that the two percentages announced by the WPI represent two different testing techniques.
The 67% published in the Science article was based on a PCR/culture test. I believe this test detects active virus circulating in the blood at that time.
As testing techniques evolved, the serology test was developed. The serology test detects viral antibodies in the blood. The 95+% is based on serology testing.
I believe getting a higher percent from serology is logical. An XMRV+ patient will not always have active, detectable virus circulating in their blood. The patient may test positive by culture this month, but negative by culture in 6 months from now. Conversely, once you have antibodies to the virus, I believe they will likely always be in the blood.
It may be useful to communicate both percentages, if you believe the audience can understand the difference. Otherwise, I believe the serology (95%) result may be more representative of the actual association between XMRV and ME/CFS.
Since the original Science paper was submitted, we have continued to refine our test for XMRV and have surprisingly found that 95 percent ME/CFS samples tested positive for XMRV antibodies in the plasma. This finding clearly points to the retrovirus as a significant contributing factor in this illness, said Judy Mikovits, Ph.D., director of research for WPI and leader of the team that discovered this association.
My thought is that XMRV+ patients such as you, that test positive by culture and negative by serology, add to the 95% making the number closer to 100%.
Thanks,
Dan
My serology test didn't say "negative," but rather "none detected," which may well mean that there are a small number of anti-bodies there but the test wasn't able to detect them. Not sure, but maybe VIP just tests a sample once for anti-bodies and could easily miss them if there are very few.
However, the WPI later made announcements that they found XMRV like viruses in up to 95% of the ME/CFS patients that they tested. This data isn't published in a peer reviewed medium like Science, so it's not official yet (or at least: most scientists will disregard this data).
Actually, this data was published in the Sep/Oct 2010 issue of Virulence, some three months after its initial submission to the peer-reviewed journal.
http://www.landesbioscience.com/journals/40/article/12486/