Tests for Lyme Disease

i'm afraid its complicated subject

the short answer is
if you are in the USA - or can access it via FedEx etc - the western blot or immunoblot by Igenex is one of the better tests

if you are in Europe - Armin labs have a range of tests for borrelia - including one for multiple species borrelia test called the Tickplex test ( there are multiple species of borrelia in Europe that cause lyme disease ) - made by a Finish company - which is also a good test

the long answer is
the reason its a complicated topic is that no test is yet available that is accurate enough to definitively rule out lyme disease.
this is hard for people to get their head around as we have tests that do exactly that for many diseases - eg AIDS, where testing is something like 99% sensitive and 99% specific - meaning the chances of it being wrong ( false positive or false negative ) are negligible and as a result you can pretty much treat it as a black and white cut and dried result

unfortunately - Lyme tests are typically a long way away from that level of accuracy - with figures for sensitivity anywhere from 20% to 80% depending on which test and which paper you reference.

to make matters more confusing - manufacturers and even public institutions often publish reports claiming their tests are much more accurate - and independent researchers often publish papers showing that the tests are less accurate.

then there are different private test labs. some like Igenex and Armin have good reputations and seem to be doing the best testing its possible to do with current technology - but there are other labs out there that have less published validation studies available - and we don't really know how well their tests perform. often they go to market as a one stop shop - testing for many pathogens for a fixed fee
- as this is attractive to patients on a budget who do not differentiate between teh different test technologies

and this is only scratching the surface of what is a very complex subject

for this reason some LLMD's do not use testing at all - and diagnose and treat based on history and symptoms

but a positive test result can be very helpful to the individual - so is often worth pursuing despite the issues.

one way to help offset the issue of poor sensitivity is to use multiple tests each using a different test technology to get a better chance of detecting infection, there is of course a cost for this.

Good advice above. Something that I don’t believe was mentioned was Medical Diagnostic Laboratories in the U.S. - it’s the most insurance friendly while still being comprehensive and “better/tick infection specific” than the big name labs.

The IGeneX ImmunoBlot.