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New to this...lyme antibodies w/ antibiotics?


libbykt

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Hi there,

 

I am just beginning to explore whether my son could have Lyme disease, and I have what I think is a very basic question. We thought he has PANDAS, and still might think so, but I don't want to rule out Lyme as we spent several weeks in New England before these symptoms appeared. So my son was on clindamycin for a week, treating strep, before we had the blood test done last night for Lyme. Can the antibiotics affect whether the antibodies will appear in the blood test?

 

Also, does anyone know of a doctor in Austin, or anywhere in Texas, that specializes in Lyme?

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Antibiotics will not effect the general lyme tests. It's only some of the more specialized tests that require you to be off of abx. In fact, an antibiotic "challenge" is often used by lyme doctors to provoke the production of antibodies and give you a better chance at an accurate test.

 

However, if you only did the lyme test through a local lab, the results may be less than reliable as a rule out. Most labs look at specific markers. They intentionally do not look for the most specific lyme markers, because a decade ago, a vaccine was under development that would have made the entire inoculated population test positive for these markers (bands 31 and 39). Even tho the vaccine failed, the CDC has yet to revise its guidelines for which bands should be tested. Therefore, in order to test for these specific bands, you need to use a specialty lab that tests for them. Most of us have used Igenex Labs out of California.

 

My son was completely negative on a standard Western Blot lyme test run by our local lab. He had 5 bands that showed up on Igenex. So if your local labs come back with positive markers, that's one thing. But if it comes back negative, you unfortunately can't wash your hands of lyme and assume it's not there. The lab tests are very crude (even Igenex, tho it's the "best of a bad situation"). Lyme, like Pandas, remains a clinical diagnosis until they can figure out better tests.

 

As for a Texas doctor - someone could make a fortune hanging out a shingle in Texas. I know so many people from that state who fly to other places for treatment. Hopefully someone here can help you. You can also post on www/lymenet.org under their "seeking a doctor" section and ask for input there.

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