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Standard two-tier lyme test has a false negative rate of 74.9%

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Posted 9/18/2017 8:40 PM (GMT 0)
/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5391870/

"False-negative results can impact diagnosis and treatment of LD, and this study indicates that for early-stage disease false-negative results are 66.8% for a single-stage test increasing to 74.9% for the two-tier test.

By comparison, HIV testing results in 1.4% false negatives for the worst-case single test and 0.095% false positives with sensitive tests used with a two-step methodology. LD testing in early-/acute-stage disease generated 56 times more false-negative test results than HIV testing, and when neurological/arthralgia symptoms were present, LD testing generated ~180 times more false-negative test results than the two-step HIV tests. "
Posted 9/22/2017 10:49 PM (GMT 0)
Excellent - thank you for sharing mpost. I will add this to my "testsarecrap" list.

-p
Posted 9/22/2017 10:52 PM (GMT 0)
Along the lines of P's thinking - Was this found on "testsarecrap.com" ?? tongue


My Dr. had me do the two tiered test- never got to the WB because the IFA was negative.
What a joke!
Posted 9/22/2017 11:33 PM (GMT 0)
G -

Yes - something like that!

Luckily, my LLMD knew to ignore the negative ELISA and she gave me the IGeneX anyway. We provoked w/ OLE for a month before the WB, too. The CDC-positive WB was essential for my insurance coverage (they are now suing my LLMD so no one else will benefit from the same coverage I had...criminals). But it has also come in handy when other a**hat MDs challenge that I don't have Lyme. I started bringing the test with me to all my other MD appts --- until I found Lyme-knowledgeable MDs. They smart. Don't ask the stupid questions.

-p
Posted 9/22/2017 11:45 PM (GMT 0)
what? nah, couldn;t be!

we are all just nuts didn't ya know?

Doctors know everything!
Posted 9/23/2017 12:12 AM (GMT 0)
My Dr. (non-LL) did accept the positive Igenex WB test though...so she got brownie points for that.


(I don't think she had any control with the government testing stopping at the IFA and not proceding with the WB)
Posted 9/25/2017 4:15 AM (GMT 0)
How long is considered 'early stage' as mentioned in the abstract?
Posted 9/25/2017 5:35 AM (GMT 0)

PDXtransplant said...
How long is considered 'early stage' as mentioned in the abstract?

i think the conclusion is you should not use standard two-tier lyme tests, you dont expect the test to go from 74.9% false positive for early stage to 0.1% if you stay one more day after 21 days, do you?

go to a specialized lab.
Posted 9/25/2017 11:35 AM (GMT 0)
"you dont expect the test to go from 74.9% false negative for early stage to 0.1% if you stay one more day after 21 days"

Actually it's right there in the abstract. The late stage rate is 16.7%. Not quite 0.1%, but it's important to note the difference between early and late stage because of the time it takes for the body to generate antibodies. In fact it's stated right on the tests itself some times that early tests may be false negative. I don't think anyone debates that. The 16.7% is what's really important as well as the fact that sensitivity goes down with arthralgia/neuropathy. I thought that was pretty interest. Overall good find mpost. Wish I was better with math
Posted 9/25/2017 2:21 PM (GMT 0)
just wanted to add that this paper was written by researchers from the Imperial College London, UK...
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