Lyme disease is an infectious pathological condition due to a bacterium , Borrelia burgdorferi , which is why it is also fuck as borreliosis . The disease is carry through atick pungency .
How Accurate Is The Elisa Test For Lyme?
Doctors base their diagnosis mainly in the medical history , clinical manifestations , and exposure to ticks , without look on lab mental testing . There are several scientific articles arguing that the ELISA test has poor accuracy ranging between 33 and 49 % , so a negative resolution does not mean that the patient does not have Lyme disease . Although ELISA test is a very good test it can provide fake positives or false negative . In spot in which the ELISA test is critical and radically changes the attitude of the doctor , it is common to perform the ELISA tryout twice in a quarrel or do another trial to ensure the consequence .
ELISA stands for the enzyme - connect immunosorbent assay . It is a lab proficiency that was designed by Swedish and Dutch scientists in 1971 , which allows detecting small particles called antigen , which are commonly fragments of proteins . The identification is specific , that means that it cause small segments of proteins digest out and can not be confused with others .
In decree to identify antigens , molecules with two pair components are used : an antibody ( which tie down antigen specifically ) and an enzyme ( which activates and signal binding to the antigen ) . Before the discovery of the ELISA radioactive molecules were used instead of enzyme , which meant an unnecessary added risk in the laboratory and a high-pitched price .

Thanks to this technique , scientific studies have been bear out in fields such as biology , biochemistry , and medicament . In the infirmary , it is in the main used to identify aggressor germ that are found in the blood , piddle , sputum , etc . The technique soon became widespread with the use of simple and very gaudy equipment that is still used today in many diagnostic centers around the world .
The results of the ELISA can take several 24-hour interval from when the sampling is taken to study it . To pick them up you have to go to another appointment since the software documentation alone can not be interpreted by the patient . In the reference , the doc will be able to make the most appropriate reading of the resultant . If you are admitted , they will be inform during your stay in the hospital , or afterward if you have been discharged before . In typeface of an emergency consultation , you’re able to get the results in less than an 60 minutes .
The ELISA is verbalize in qualitative values that mean that either it is positively charged or it is negative . Only ELISPOT can furnish quantitative results , but there are no received limits for all field . When the ELISA is positive it think that antigen have been detected in the collected sample , and therefore there are source present . When it is negative , antigens have not been discover and the sample distribution is not conceive contaminated .
Lyme Disease Diagnosis
In the case of Lyme borreliosis , serological mental test instead of clarifying the symptomatic problems can produce doubts and when the medico turns to the laboratory to support the clinical suspicion may be disappointed . The substantiation of clinical diagnosing by testing ground methods is , therefore , a touchy and difficult return due to the occurrence of fictive positivistic results .
For the diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis , the story of exposure to tick bites in infested areas , along with clinical manifestations and prescribed serologic results , may be sufficient . Even so , there is a broad external debate about the diagnostic utility of the dissimilar serological tests for the diagnosis of Lyme borreliosis . The options could be :
The unmediated exam in a glowering field of honor base on the morphology of Borrelias and its mobility with a rotary motion of the spiral against the hands of the clock can be an option in places with few resources .
The most common serologic trial are : collateral immunofluorescence , haemagglutination , and ELISA and allow the sensing of specific antibody against B. burgdorferi between 3 and 6 weeks after contagion ( IgM antibodies after initial contagion and IgG antibodies for eld ) . The confirmatory method of serologic tests is immunoblotting ( Western Blotting ) par excellence .
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