Why Lyme Testing is Not Accurate

Lyme Testing

Lyme Disease is a spirochetal disease that is passed from ticks or in utero. It has become an epidemic in the United States, Canada, and Europe and is on every continent. There is a lot of controversy surrounding Lyme Disease. One of the problems is that the testing for Lyme Disease and the other tick borne infections, known as co-infections, is very inaccurate.

The testing for Lyme is a two tier testing method. First your doctor will order an ELISA, and if that comes back positive, then your doctor will order a Western Blot. Unfortunately Lyme Tests have been found to be very inaccurate. I am going to write about what I have learned in the last six years studying Lyme Disease and why we should not rely on these tests. Even the CDC admits that Lyme diagnosis should be a clinical one, and that the tests are not to be relied upon.

To read how disparate the tests were in research trials click here: Inaccurate Lyme Disease Testing Research

http://www.squidoo.com/understanding-lyme-tests

Why Lyme Testing is Not Always Accurate

The ELISA

There is a great deal of controversy surrounding Lyme disease testing. One problem is the way the tests are primed to recognize laboratory strains of Bb, rather than wild types. There are so many strains and labs can only detect a small number of them. Also Lyme spirochetes can hide in the human bodies DNA, and fool the immune system into thinking it isn't there. So, no antibodies are produced, resulting in negative tests since the test only looks for anitbodies instead of the bacteria itself.

Because of the difference in the two antibodies, two separate tests are available to test for their presence. Therefore, a physician must specify whether or not a patient should have an IgM or IgG Western Blot, or an IgM or IgG ELISA test. This is where things get tricky. Physicians do a two tiered test. First they do an ELISA then they move on to the Western Blot only if the ELISA is positive. Which makes no sense since it is not sensitive at all.

Elisa Test

The Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbant Serum Assay is the simplest, least expensive, easiest to perform, and most common Lyme test ordered. It is a test based on detecting the antibodies that our bodies make in response to being exposed to Lyme Disease, aka Borrelia burgdorferi. It is a preferred test by laboratories, not because it is more accurate than other Lyme tests, but because it is automated. It is a fast test, in other words, labs can turn over a quick profit with this test. This test is reported to only be 55% accurate. Would you test your family member for cancer or any other disease if it was only a 55% of getting it right?

How ELISA test works is that it can be primed to be very specific for some of the spirochetes antibodies. This is done by taking a lab sample of the bacteria and breaking the sample down into fragments. These fragments, or know as antigens, are then embedded on the side of a reagent vessel like a test tube. Then the patient's serum is added, and any free antibodies specific for the test strain will then bind to the antigens, which are linked to special enzymes that will change color when antibodies are present. The sample is continually diluted until the reaction no longer occurs and no color change can be detected. The sample is then reported as a dilution ratio, such as one part serum to 256 parts water, or 1:256.

The ELISA test seems simple, but it has some major flaws. Borrelia species are polymorphic. That is, Borrelia species can significantly change its surface proteins enough during cell division as to evade our immune system, which may differ from laboratory strains enough to result in a false negative, even if antiBb antibodies are present. So until we can test for every strain these tests are pretty much useless.

Note: There have been numerous *new* strains found in the last couple years. (In more then one country) The test cannot test for these. 

Here's some books I recommend to help you understand Lyme Disease and treatments.