cd57

Let me try this again. This article explains it. You may have to copy and paste the link into your search bar to avoid the " not found" crap. Better still, highlight the link and then click on "go to". Only way I can get it to work for me.

/www.researchednutritionals.com/library/lyme/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about-cd57/

Post Edited (julymorning) : 5/20/2017 2:30:01 AM (GMT-6)

The bottom line is that no one knows what all goes into suppressing a CD57. It simply has not been researched enough. So while many things CAN affect it, we are often surprised by those with Lyme, because while some with a very "normal" CD57 test can have an overwhelming amount of impairment/disability, someone with a very low CD57 may have very "minor" impairment (comparatively).

When you look into this, you will have to be very careful to only stick to highly recognized papers/authors that have no motivation on either side of this - meaning, you essentially end up researching those that wrote the papers/articles.

Notes from the link: "A below-normal count has been associated with chronic Lyme disease by the work of Drs. Raphael Stricker and Edward Winger. No one knows for sure why CD57+ NK cells are low in Lyme disease patients, but it is important to note that many disease states that are often confused with chronic Lyme (MS, systemic lupus, rheumatoid arthritis) are not associated with low CD57+ NK counts. The good news is that for most Lyme patients the CD57+ NK level increases as treatment progresses and health is regained.
CD57 markers can also be expressed on other kinds of cells, including T-cells, so it is important to distinguish between CD57+ T-cells and CD57+ NK cells. Clinicians need to be aware that many testing laboratories claiming to perform the CD57 test are actually looking at CD57+ T-cells rather than CD57+ NK cells, which are the cells of interest in chronic Lyme disease.
In order for a testing laboratory to measure the CD57+ NK level, it first measures the percentage of lymphocytes that are CD57+ NK cells. Then an absolute count is calculated by multiplying that percentage by the patient’s total lymphocyte count. The standard normal range for the absolute CD57 NK count is 60 to 360 cells per microliter of blood. This wide range was established based upon test results of hundreds of healthy patients. By these laboratory standards, a test result below 60 cells per microliter would be considered below normal and therefore associated with chronic Lyme disease. However, a recent study of my Austin patients has led me to believe that 100 cells per microliter is a more reliable threshold separating Lyme patients and healthy controls.
**Postscript: If you would like your health care provider to order the CD57 NK test for you, your blood sample needs to be drawn into an EDTA tube (lavender top) on Monday through Thursday and sent immediately to either LabCorp in Burlington, NC, or Clinical Pathology Laboratories (CPL) in Austin, TX. LabCorp and CPL are the only two labs that perform this test properly. Quest does NOT. The LabCorp test code is #505026 and is named HNK1 (CD57) Panel. The CPL test code is #4886, CD57 for Lyme disease. The test is time-sensitive and must be performed within 12 hours of collection, so blood should not be drawn on a Friday or results may be inaccurate.**"