Armin Labs results- what does weak positive mean?

Hi, my dad was recently tested by Armin Labs, his results have come back: Borrelia b. Full Antigen ! 2 SI
It says that is a weak positive. It will be another week before his consultant even looks at them. Does this result mean he has Lyme disease??

Hi Lunacat13 -

Welcome to the forum! I'm sorry you're here but your dad is lucky that you found us.

The funny thing is - the "weak" positive result really has nothing to do with the the Lyme infection, how bad it is or the diagnosis of Lyme disease. The ONLY thing this test is measuring is how well your immune system is responding to the presence of the Lyme microbe. It's a serology test so it's looking for antibodies created by a healthy immune system to the Lyme microbe, not the Lyme microbe itself.

And often Lyme can break down the immune system so it's not functioning like it would in a healthy person, a person can have a lower-functioning immune system because of other illnesses or challenges to the immune system, poor GI health (70% of our immune system is in our GI), and the older you are, the lower the immune system functions. Therefore, it is not at all uncommon for people to have trouble developing enough antibodies for the test to pick up.

Because of the unreliable immune response and a few other reasons that make these tests only about 50% accurate (according to studies), the CDC recommends that MDs use a clinical diagnosis approach to diagnose Lyme:

"Surveillance case definitions establish uniform criteria for disease reporting and should not be used as the sole criteria for establishing clinical diagnoses, determining the standard of care necessary for a particular patient, setting guidelines for quality assurance, or providing standards for reimbursement."
www.cdc.gov/lyme/stats/survfaq.html

I agree with Girlie - most MDs won't know how to diagnose Lyme clinically so that's why it's really important that he get your dad to a specialist.

Here is a symptom list to help your dad and the specialist get prepared for the initial appointment - can help determine if he might also have any coinfections, which are very common with Lyme and can help the specialist with a clinical diagnosis, which requires consideration of health status and symptoms:
Jernigan's symptom list:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=3673749&g=3673789#m3673789

Hope this is helpful - if not just keep asking questions -

-p

Lunacat13 said...
Hello, thank you both for your answers. My dad is waiting to see a specialist in infectious diseases so hopefully that will lead to diagnosis and treatment.

99% that it won't.


Your Dad needs a Lyme Literate Dr. (LLMD) They are the 'specialists' when it comes to diagnosing, and treatment of Lyme disease.


Unless that ID Dr. happens to be Lyme literate - then I wouldn't waste your Dad's or your time.

We can help you find a LLMD. Start a new thread: "Looking for LLMD in/near____" and fill in the blank.
Then enable your email through My Profile...so members can send you recommendations.

You can also contact me via email and I will check my list of LLMD's and send you names.