tinacarroll27
Senior Member
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- UK
I just got my results back for Lyme and it was negative. I was tested using the Elisa test. Does this now mean I do not have Lyme or could it be a false negative?
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Negative for Lyme
- Thread starter tinacarroll27
- Start date
No, the ELISA test for borrelia burgdorferi is highly unreliable and in no way sufficient to rule out lyme disease. Not only that, IgM antibodies tend to test negative in chronic lyme disease and the bacteria has several mechanisms to evade the immune system so no IgM is created. IgG is often positive but incompetent doctors believe that means a past infection only.
The diagnosis of lyme disease is more of a clinical thing than anything else, best to be done by a LLMD (lyme literate MD).
Other tests you can do for lyme disease;
LTT (lymphocyte transformation test)
PCR
Western blot
ELISA (ONLY with IgeneX if you are from the US)
CD57
It's important to test for viral and bacterial co-infections as well.
The diagnosis of lyme disease is more of a clinical thing than anything else, best to be done by a LLMD (lyme literate MD).
Other tests you can do for lyme disease;
LTT (lymphocyte transformation test)
PCR
Western blot
ELISA (ONLY with IgeneX if you are from the US)
CD57
It's important to test for viral and bacterial co-infections as well.
Unfortunately all Lyme testing has major problems. There are a number of private companies that provide testing, but there is little or no evidence to suggest the tests they run are at all valid, and a test with unknown reliability is inherently unreliable.
It's a tough one. I've been through this myself. After much research I decided there was no way to trust any route to a definitive answer so I simply fell back on my ME diagnosis.
It's a tough one. I've been through this myself. After much research I decided there was no way to trust any route to a definitive answer so I simply fell back on my ME diagnosis.