Galaxy Diagnostics Bartonella Testing

Can anyone who has used Galaxy Diagnostics ePCR or IFA Bartonella testing let me know if they found it to be accurate? I am also going to look into the Igenex Bartonella WB and IGXSpot testing. Most of what I have read is that the Galaxy testing is the best but I have had good results with Igenex Fish Babesia testing. I know that Bartonella testing is much more difficult than Babesia.

i've done a fair bit of looking into bartonella testing - and i also believe Galaxy's ePCR to be the best out there.

sensitivity is the main problem with bartonella - so false negatives are this issue
(you don't need to be very concerned about false positives - they are much less of an issue and if you get a positive test result you can be pretty sure its accurate )

the galaxy latest ePCR test tries to tackle this sensitivity problem in several ways
- it uses multiple blood draw on different days to maximise the chances of getting bart in the blood sample - something which is often overlooked - bart is not present in the blood most of the time- only occasionally
- it then uses a special culture medium to try to multiply the number of organism to aid detection
- it then performs PCR on the resulting culture - and in its latest method - with digital droplet PCR basically does this a thousand times in parallel and analyses the results statistically to give much better resolution - eg averages 1000 test and gives you a more reliable result.

its a good test - the people behind it are known entities in the infections diseases community with many published papers to their manes - Ed Brieschwertdz is a real ground breaker in particular and has done a lot to bring zoonotic diseases into the spotlight - and they have done some really solid science based things to try and get the sensitivity up - and yet still they only claim 49% sensitivity in their published paper.
this probably compares to 20% or so for standard ELISA type tests - so it is a big step forward - and the fact that they don't claim 80 or 90% by comparing to only certain lab strains or some such slight of hand that other tests do - adds credibility in my view.

it is also a gene sequencing type test - looking for a fingerprint of the bartonella organisms - so in theory it should be able to find any type or species or strain - not only a few named ones.

the Igenex western blot for bartonella is interesting - in that it looks for more than just B. Henslae - and doing so with a western blot means you are looking for more antigens - rather than just one with a typical ELISA - and so have somewhat better chance of seeing a pattern that indicates Bart - but it is still an immunological test - ie is relying on the patient to produce expected antibodies - as that's what it is measuring - and we know people with these infections often do not produce the expected antibodies at all - so again there is that sensitivity issue.
the other point with this test is that it looks only for specific species of bart - a few of them - which is better than most Bart tests - but still no use if you don't have one of the named strains it looks for.
it is cheaper and i guess only need one blood draw - so its an option.
if you have a strain it can detect logically i would say its sensitivity is between a standard single antigen ELISA and the Galaxy test

out of the two i would favour the galaxy test if i could afford it

i think those are the front runners - haven't looked into the other two - i guess the IGXspot is some form of lymphocyte transformation test - which again is another way of looking for bart indirectly - not requiring antibodies - but also has sensitivity issues

hope it is of some help

the other left field option is a company called Aperiomics - they claim to be able to sequence any sample for all of the microbes present - skin, blood, tissue, urine etc - and detect even unknown bacteria and near matches - and basically do one test for all
i had some conversations with them - but did not use them - but if money was no object i think i would - but alongside other more established tests

yep - bartonella lives in the skin - so if they can test for that it will help sensitivity

I’m wondering if I should test for it - if it’s positive - then I know I still have bart and need to keep treating/add something new….

But if it’s negative - it won’t tell me anything, right?

But I’m not 100% symptom free yet… almost tho.

Again - maybe all that’s left over is just the body needing to heal

Garzie - you are right I guess it’s more curiosity more than anything.

Thanks for explaining about the Bartonella testing Garzie, learned something new again.

Yes MDL labs pcr testing is what I had done - twice.

I just read the more recent posts. My thoughts were the same as Garzie’s when I saw you mentioned “I have a big Bart rash on my back.” The scratches and/or striae are as definitive of bartonella as the bullseye rash is of borrelia. Any reputable LLMD worth a grain of salt would know a bart rash. If I saw an LLMD who dismissed a bart rash, I would RUN!!!

I totally understand the curiosity and need to know, though. If you want to spend the $$, go for it. Just remember a negative result means nothing, while a positive is confirmation of what you already know.

I tested positive for Lyme and ehrlichia with DNA Connexions. Their test panel includes several species of bartonella and babesia. I t did not detect bart or babs in my sample, although I had clinical signs of both since childhood. Since I had both the scratches and the striae, I didn’t bother spending any more on testing. I decided to treat herbally, so I just treated all 3 B’s with appropriate herbs from Buhner’s protocols.

I’m not WalkingbyFaith - but wanted to mention that Japanese Knotweed is one of core herbs for Bartonella.

https://buhnerhealinglyme.com/the-protocols/

Was thinking of using Stephania because the Bart impacts my eyes so much. I have a lot of floaters and spots going on.

Hey, I'm glad you guys are talking about this right now (Bartonella) and reminding me to order more Chinese Skullcap. I had not had any left for awhile now... and whenever I get this feeling coming on (Bartonella-induced psychosis) with Dopamine up-regulation or whatever it is called, it is a Dopamine dysfunction that is thought to affect schizo-symptoms, so if I remember correctly Chinese Skullcap works to calm the anxiety...

Hey Garzie, I think I meant to say Magnolia Bark Extract, very fragrant almost perfume-y herb taken from the Bark of the Magnolia Tree...very calming...

but I had ran out of both supplements and I guess I'm suffering for it now.

Also, I'm off all of the "hard" ABX for now, I had built up a supply of a bunch (Buhners and traditional-Western meds) but the Minocycline/Bart scared me also...

Yeah those enzymes are really something, cytochrome-P and there are so many interactions...I'm careful as so many herbs and things utilize or affect that enzyme pathway (grapefruit juice, thc? cbd?) but I can feel their strong effects (took a bunch of supplements today and probably too much caffeine) but I used the energy to clean so that's good!!