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Observations on Culture/PCR vs Serology
Hi,
I sent my blood into VIP DX on Sept 29 2010 - and asked for ALL tests to be conducted -Culture/PCR, serology (antibodies) for XMRV/MLVs.
Un/fortunately, they only ran the culture and the results returned (on December 13, 2010) "none detected" or negative. They do have my blood so they will run serology - but it will take another 6 wks or more.
I have a "severe case" (by scale) of ME/CFS - for more than 15 yrs. Fevers (for yrs), weakness (often floor-bound for long periods), pain, breathing and heart/OI/Neurocardiogenic syncope, dysphagia/swallowing problems (only liquids) mainly homebound.
Am curious about the trend I see of one or the other test being positive. I am also trying to find statistics on % positive after a negative culture/pcr ("trying to prepare self" said in a Bridget Jones accent.)
I have a quote from Dr. Cheney's newsletter:
So it looks from Dr. C's information is 67% are shown to be positive AFTER being Culture/PCR negative.
Looking for your observations or opinions on this...I'm betting many have studied these statistics too.
I was pretty stunned yesterday with the negative result...it's a scary and desperate place to be in...sigh.
Sincerely,
Elisabeth
* I changed the title of this thread to open it up to discussing the broader issues of the two types of testing - and obserations on correlations between those positive on one test and negative on the other...
Hi,
I sent my blood into VIP DX on Sept 29 2010 - and asked for ALL tests to be conducted -Culture/PCR, serology (antibodies) for XMRV/MLVs.
Un/fortunately, they only ran the culture and the results returned (on December 13, 2010) "none detected" or negative. They do have my blood so they will run serology - but it will take another 6 wks or more.
I have a "severe case" (by scale) of ME/CFS - for more than 15 yrs. Fevers (for yrs), weakness (often floor-bound for long periods), pain, breathing and heart/OI/Neurocardiogenic syncope, dysphagia/swallowing problems (only liquids) mainly homebound.
Am curious about the trend I see of one or the other test being positive. I am also trying to find statistics on % positive after a negative culture/pcr ("trying to prepare self" said in a Bridget Jones accent.)
I have a quote from Dr. Cheney's newsletter:
I have reviewed the recently returned serology data from VIP Dx. Of the 22 CFS patients returned with serology results to date, 2 out of 3 or 67% were reported positive who previously had been negative by PCR/culture. 8 were from the 12 reported as negative by PCR/culture using the LNCaP permissive cell line in the 47 consecutive Cheney Clinic case study done in late 2009. Of the eight, four were seropositive and four were seronegative. An additional four are either not returned as yet or a request for repeat was made (indeterminate). On the four reported as seronegative, one is part of a multi-member family in which all except this patient who is also the sickest are XMRV PCR/culture positive. One of the indeterminantes is also in this multi-member XMRV positive family category.
So it looks from Dr. C's information is 67% are shown to be positive AFTER being Culture/PCR negative.
Looking for your observations or opinions on this...I'm betting many have studied these statistics too.
I was pretty stunned yesterday with the negative result...it's a scary and desperate place to be in...sigh.
Sincerely,
Elisabeth
* I changed the title of this thread to open it up to discussing the broader issues of the two types of testing - and obserations on correlations between those positive on one test and negative on the other...