SOC
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I finally got hard copies of my last immune tests. I now have data for three points in time and somewhat different conditions. The results are definitely different. I'll talk to Dr R about this when I see her in Sep, but there wasn't anything in these results she was overly concerned about at the time. So, just a puzzle, at this point, more than a concern. I'd appreciate any thoughts on this data.
Conditions:
3/26/12 First ever immune tests. I was still on Valcyte. Had been taking supposedly immune modulating supplements, but not within 4-6 weeks of the test. Blood drawn in Miami.
12//10/12 Next visit to Dr R. Had not taken an immune modulating supps (as far as I knew) except Equilibrant in nearly a year. Blood was drawn before I saw dr. When I told her I had had surgery 2 weeks before, she said that immune tests would be distorted by that, so shouldn't be done then -- we should wait another 6 weeks. However, the tests were run by accident anyway.
1/22/13 Because I had gone down to Miami for practically no reason and it seemed crazy to make me come back in only 6 weeks just for the testing, they gave me extra super special dispensation to have the blood drawn at home and sent to the U Miami Lab. (I do not recommend this. It took 3 phone calls to the phlebotomy services admin and 3 trips (2 failures) to the lab itself to get even the appearance of having it drawn and shipped properly for this very finicky testing -- and I still don't know if they did it right, just that the U Miami lab accepted it).
Cytokine Data
The cytokine data comes in pg/ml along with std dev and error, mean, median, percentile bin. The percentile bin is the simplest for quick looks. I've remarked the bins as follows to make it easy to read:
1: below 10% -- very low
2: 10-25% -- low
3: 25-50% -- normal/okay
4: 50-75% -- normal/okay
5: 75-90% -- high
6: above 90% -- very high
for my own information I added another group
0: my measure was 0 pg/ml (or maybe that's good )
In the table below, orange is out-of-range low data, red is out-of-range high data
The first 6 cytokines are labeled "Proinflammatory"
The middle 6 are labeled "Th1/IL-8"
The bottom 6 are labeled "Th2/Th17/Anti-inflammatory
ETA: Oh crud, my pretty compact table failed. If anybody knows how to fix it, let me know.
Cytonkine
The first set doesn't look too bad. Inflammatory cytokines were certainly not high except for IL-1 beta, and anti-inflammatory cytokines were normal to high. Something looks pretty flaky in the Th-17 arena, though, with IL-17 and IL-23 quite low.
The post-surgery cytokines are, expectedly, different. Pro-inflammatory modulated into the normal range -- probably good after surgery. The Th-1 cytokines went bonkers in different directions, but that might be normal post-surgery, I dunno. The Th-2/Th-17 cytokines tanked, which doesn't seem like a good thing, but whadda I know?
The 3rd set is the most interesting. My immune system should be back to normal after the stress of surgery 10-12 weeks before. Should be. It looks awfully wacky to me.
General notes from the report says "Elevated TNF RI and TNF RII suggest a chronic TNF-alpha elevation" TNF RI and TNF RII very high (check), but TNF-alpha has been reliably normal. Go figure.
LTalpha (TNFbeta) and TNF RI went from low to very high over 10 months. IL-10, OTOH, went from high to non-existent in the same time period. IL-2 and IL-17 also went non-existent.
The whole Th-17 (IL-17 and IL-23) thing doesn't look too good across the board -- definitely running low to very low. From the general notes, "Lowered Th-17 levels may leave the host susceptible to opportunistic infections." No big surprise there, I suppose.
I'm off to dig around about cytokine info -- functions, reasons for abnormalities. I'd appreciate any info or just comments on this data.
Further news on the immune cell and pathogen data in another post, should anyone be a data geek like me and interested in such things.
Thanks!
Conditions:
3/26/12 First ever immune tests. I was still on Valcyte. Had been taking supposedly immune modulating supplements, but not within 4-6 weeks of the test. Blood drawn in Miami.
12//10/12 Next visit to Dr R. Had not taken an immune modulating supps (as far as I knew) except Equilibrant in nearly a year. Blood was drawn before I saw dr. When I told her I had had surgery 2 weeks before, she said that immune tests would be distorted by that, so shouldn't be done then -- we should wait another 6 weeks. However, the tests were run by accident anyway.
1/22/13 Because I had gone down to Miami for practically no reason and it seemed crazy to make me come back in only 6 weeks just for the testing, they gave me extra super special dispensation to have the blood drawn at home and sent to the U Miami Lab. (I do not recommend this. It took 3 phone calls to the phlebotomy services admin and 3 trips (2 failures) to the lab itself to get even the appearance of having it drawn and shipped properly for this very finicky testing -- and I still don't know if they did it right, just that the U Miami lab accepted it).
Cytokine Data
The cytokine data comes in pg/ml along with std dev and error, mean, median, percentile bin. The percentile bin is the simplest for quick looks. I've remarked the bins as follows to make it easy to read:
1: below 10% -- very low
2: 10-25% -- low
3: 25-50% -- normal/okay
4: 50-75% -- normal/okay
5: 75-90% -- high
6: above 90% -- very high
for my own information I added another group
0: my measure was 0 pg/ml (or maybe that's good )
In the table below, orange is out-of-range low data, red is out-of-range high data
The first 6 cytokines are labeled "Proinflammatory"
The middle 6 are labeled "Th1/IL-8"
The bottom 6 are labeled "Th2/Th17/Anti-inflammatory
ETA: Oh crud, my pretty compact table failed. If anybody knows how to fix it, let me know.
Cytonkine
3/26/12
12/10/12 post surgery
1/22/13
TNF a3
4
3
LTa(TNFb)2
4
6
IL1a4
3
4
IL1b5
3
6
IL64
4
4
TNFRI2
4
6
IFNg3
2
3
IL124
6
2
1L23
2
0
1L153
5
6
1L83
2
4
TNFRII3
3
6
IL44
4
3
IL54
1
4
IL172
2
0
IL231
2
1
IL105
1
0
IL134
5
3
The first set doesn't look too bad. Inflammatory cytokines were certainly not high except for IL-1 beta, and anti-inflammatory cytokines were normal to high. Something looks pretty flaky in the Th-17 arena, though, with IL-17 and IL-23 quite low.
The post-surgery cytokines are, expectedly, different. Pro-inflammatory modulated into the normal range -- probably good after surgery. The Th-1 cytokines went bonkers in different directions, but that might be normal post-surgery, I dunno. The Th-2/Th-17 cytokines tanked, which doesn't seem like a good thing, but whadda I know?
The 3rd set is the most interesting. My immune system should be back to normal after the stress of surgery 10-12 weeks before. Should be. It looks awfully wacky to me.
General notes from the report says "Elevated TNF RI and TNF RII suggest a chronic TNF-alpha elevation" TNF RI and TNF RII very high (check), but TNF-alpha has been reliably normal. Go figure.
LTalpha (TNFbeta) and TNF RI went from low to very high over 10 months. IL-10, OTOH, went from high to non-existent in the same time period. IL-2 and IL-17 also went non-existent.
The whole Th-17 (IL-17 and IL-23) thing doesn't look too good across the board -- definitely running low to very low. From the general notes, "Lowered Th-17 levels may leave the host susceptible to opportunistic infections." No big surprise there, I suppose.
I'm off to dig around about cytokine info -- functions, reasons for abnormalities. I'd appreciate any info or just comments on this data.
Further news on the immune cell and pathogen data in another post, should anyone be a data geek like me and interested in such things.
Thanks!