Newly Diagnosed- need test interpretation advice

Hi Treetoile,
Welcome to our community! I'm so glad you found us!

If you haven't ​yet​, it would be helpful for you to start with reading through the thread at the top of the forum titled,"New to Lyme?...Start here!!", as it is packed full of important information, symptom lists, helpful links and pdf's, how to detox when one has these infections, information on probiotics and much more.

As for your test results, here is the site that I use to help interpret them:www.reocities.com/HotSprings/Oasis/6455/western-blot.txt You can go there to find supporting Pubmed articles showing what these bands represent.

An IgM result means that you have an active infection. It once was thought to mean an 'early' infection, but has since been revised. IgG means that the infection is at a later stage.

The more +'s you have beside a number, the stronger the reaction.

IND means indeterminate - not negative, but not quite strong enough to be "fully positive". But it means that you reacted on those bands and should be considered, especially when they are Lyme specific bands.

A "Lyme specific band" means specific for Borrelia Burgdorferi, sensu stricto - Lyme disease in the strictest sense. There is only one on the over 300 known strains of Lyme that is considered Bb, ss. Nothing else will turn a Lyme specific band positive other than Lyme disease - - even though there are over 100 different strains of Borrelia in the US that cause human illness.



Bands 18 & 41 (whether in IgM or IgG) are indicative of the tail of the bacteria, which can cross react with other Spirochetal bacteria such as Relapsing Fever, Pintas and Yaws, and Syphilis.


Sometimes people want to say that Band 31 can cross react, but these articles say that it's Lyme specific, which means it can't cross react. Band 31 indicates OspA (Outer Surface Protein "A").:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1520966


www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9440203


www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8406878


www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8005219


www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10030131


And more references can be found here:
www.reocities.com/HotSprings/Oasis/6455/western-blot.txt

As for Bands 83 - 93, they are also Lyme specific. Band 83 indicates a high molecular mass protein that is specific to Lyme disease.

Band 93 indicates an immunodominant protoplasmic cylinder antigen, that is specific to Lyme disease.


I believe the reference range for the IFA is 80 or above is positive - but you will have to check your test results paper to be sure. So with a value of 40, that's not a positive if that's true.

So you can see that there is little doubt that you have Lyme. The co-infection testing is very poor though, so those doctors that are knowledgeable about these infections usually go by symptoms instead of test results - and often have to do that for Lyme as well.