Please help interpret Armin labs

hello and welcome to the forum

i was tested at Armin also

the test is positive for :

*lyme disease
*bartonella
*mycoplasma pn

EBV is also positive - but its known that EBV and Lyme antibodies can cross react - so its possible that that result is a false positive

there are PCR based tests for EBV which should be able to tell ongoing EBV from Lyme cross reactive antibodies.

stress is often in the picture for many of us prior to becoming ill.

sorry you find yourself here

testing is imperfect - but generally causing more of an issue with false negative rather than false positives -
so these results of more than one vector born illness (lyme and bartonella) strongly suggest vector exposure ( tick bte etc ) and this together with the symptoms you describe, fatigue, neck pain and stiffness - point towards lyme disease being a strong likelihood

if it were me i would certainly move forwards with treatment

it can be a challenge to find a suitable doctor - depending where in the world you are - what country are you in?

Thanks so much for your replies! Very helpful!

Im located in Ontario, Canada. Ive been trying to get a CD 57 test run through my doctors office just to get further info for cheaper (its already cost me a couple thousand just to try get answers) but they don't even know what that test is. Definitely feeling a little overwhelmed by how little seems to be understood by primary care providers. I have a naturopath who seems to have some experience with Lyme, so that is where I am being seen at the moment. But any advice as to where to go would be appreciated as well! It feels like a giant puzzle trying to make sense of it all.

Hello fellow Canadian!

I am in BC and though there aren’t any LLMD’s here - there are LLND’s that can prescribe abx.
I don’t know if Ontario ND’s can prescribe abx now (previously they could not)

You could go across the border - I may have a few options listed for Ontario.

You can email me and I can see what my list for LLMD’s and LLND’s that are close to you.

sure - i follow what you are asking

but no, as far as we know the higher numbers is not related to higher numbers of bacteria

the tests listed are all serological in nature

this means they do not look for or test the actual presence of bacteria themselves - but instead they use the activity of a persons immune system towards proteins found in the bacteria as a surrogate measure for infection. They do this by measuring the amount of antibodies to the pathogen that a person is producing or the reaction of white blood cells to the pathogen

its called an indirect test method - most infectious disease testing is done like this.

its cheap and quick and works well for most simple infections ( but unfortunately not so well for lyme and co-infections)

unfortunately in chronic infections the amount of antibodies or immune reaction a person produces is not really dependent on how much bacteria are in them - more to do with how the immune system is behaving - which differs from person to person.

low positive or indeterminate results are pretty common in people here who have been ill for some time.

in any case, Armin labs sets the positive thresholds where they have for a reason - weak positive is still a positive, if that makes sense.

the CD 57+ test can be another possible way to help support a Lyme diagnosis - as its often suppressed in lyme patients - but there are other unrelated conditions where its suppressed - and in some lyme patients its actually elevated - so its not a particularly specific test for lyme.

where it can be useful - is in people with lyme - if its v low initially - there is some evidence that it can be used to track recovery as it tends to recover as they recover(there are currently no tests that can show Lyme is no longer present -- so that's why there is some interest in this test for that purpose).