[erentz]

Curious about your thoughts on a patient that tested both the Quest and IgeneX immunoblots at the same time. The Quest showing 5 positive bands. And the IgeneX no positive bands. Then repeated the same two tests four months later at the same time with the same results. So Quest repeatedly CDC positive, IgeneX repeatedly negative. How would you interpret that?

[lymeeducator]

I would ask which Quest lab specifically ran the test as lab quality can vary. I have not seen mainstream labs return all of the antibody stains present in some time, they usually indicate (+/-) for IgM (less likely) or IgG (more likely). The count is also usually indicated (titer level). It also depends which antibody proteins are present. Many of them overlap with other pathogens (IE: 41 covers most of the spirochete class: Borellia, Leptospirosis, Syphilis, etc). It depends on current & historical symptoms and markers like C3a/TGF-b/MMP-9/CD57,8 and would probably try other tests for markers, possibly another Lyme specific test at a different, but specialized lab like Galaxy Diagnostics (well known for Bart), Fry labs or another in NY whose name escapes me.