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Is it active mycoplasma or a false positive?

S

Scotty81

Messages
86
My daughter has recently tested positive for mycoplasma IgM antibodies. In fact, over the past 4 years, she has either been equivocal or weakly positive for this infection. Since I know that false positives can occur, at least according to the Mayo Clinic site, I am wondering if there is some other test that can truly confirm whether the mycoplasma bacteria is present or not.

Would a mycoplasma PCR test be the thing one should do if one wants to be truly sure whether mycoplasma is present or not? And, can one have a false positive even to this test?
 
JES

JES

Senior Member
Messages
1,322
I don't know how accurate the test is, probably not very accurate. I'm in the same boat, few years ago I had both active IgG (moderately) and IgM (weakly), still had after 3 months of antibiotics. From my understanding, even a positive result on both might not indicate active infection unless levels are significantly high.

I certainly had no benefit from any mycoplasma treatment (I also tried things like Samento) and I doubt it's the cause of my CFS symptoms. Mycoplasma often causes cough and upper airway symptoms, which I never had to begin with. Although mycoplasma itself can be difficult to beat even for a healthy person, it seems to be a long-term issue among pro athletes in my country.
 
Thinktank

Thinktank

Senior Member
Messages
1,640
Location
Europe
What kind of mycoplasma has she been tested for?
You can do a mycoplasma spp. PCR and confirm any positive outcome with DNA sequencing. That's how i know i have a mycoplasma infection, although i don't know what kind it is as i've tested negative for the most common ones.
 
S

Scotty81

Messages
86
@Thinktank

The specific mycoplasma she was positive for was mycoplasma pneumonia, both IgM and IgG. On one hand, my daughter does not have specific symptoms of "walking pneumonia". On the other hand, I've read that infections such as these can be related to all the fatigue, brain fog, GI issues, etc. that CFS/ME patients have. As far as her immune system goes, there is no other evidence of infection (e.g. white blood cells OK). There is evidence of immune activation, specifically her complement immune system. So, part of her immune system is definitely reacting to something; we just don't know what. Ritchie Shoemaker states that complement immune system activation could be due to mycotoxins, but I'm sure there could be other causes. So, I really don't know what to think about the mycoplasma pneumonia. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Scotty81
 
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