\u00a9 2023 wikiHow, Inc. All rights reserved. The tick can make you seriously ill with Lyme disease. The process tests your blood for evidence of antibodies your body produces to resist spirochete bacteria, which causes Lyme disease.XResearch source Your health care provider will first review your symptoms. Reviewed by: Jatin M. Vyas, MD, PhD, Associate Professor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Associate in Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA. It takes a few days to get results. The other Lyme disease test, known as lumbar puncture (spinal tap), can take up to two hours. Each test measures specific attributes. . You May Like: Cure Lyme Disease Without Antibiotics. The early symptomsbeginning three to 30 days after tick exposureinclude: In addition, several other factors are taken into account, and can prompt tests even in absence of symptoms: Generally speaking, tests of antibody levels, most often ELISA and Western blot, are considered the gold standard of diagnosis. Antibodies normally persist in the blood for months or even years after the infection is gone; therefore, the test cannot be used to determine cure. Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a tickborne viral disease widely distributed throughout the world ().CCHF virus (order Bunyavirales, family Nairoviridae, genus Orthonairovirus) causes disease only in humans, but its natural cycle includes wild mammals, livestock, birds, and ticks.The virus has been detected in > 35 tick species; Hyalomma genus ticks are recognized vectors, and H . If your doctor does not consider Lyme disease, you can raise the possibility of being tested for it based on how your symptoms and risk factors compare to those of Lyme disease. [2] HDL 36. Talk to your doctor about co-infections, particularly if you have widespread or diverse symptoms. [1] Having a tick attached to your body isn't just getting a little too close to nature. If you have several indeterminate responses, your doctor may have you come back for another test in a few weeks. What Does a Positive Herpes IgM Test Result Mean? Immunoglobin G (IgG) and immunoglobin M (IgM) are antibodies that are created to fight against harmful bacteria and viruses. LDL Direct is 221. A positive ELISA result is abnormal. Typically, these tests are well tolerated and cause no problems, but some care is needed regardless. Elevated WBC (>11,500) can indicate an active infection. If you aren't symptomatic, your doctor may still do blood testing if you live in a high-risk area. This means that if you have three or four positive IgG bands, your test will be considered negative by CDC criteria. Early symptoms that usually occur within the first month after a tick bite can include: Symptoms that come and go are common with Lyme disease. A tick may be positive for certain diseases but may not have passed any of them on to you. There is no clear evidence that treatment is beneficial in patients with Lyme disease who exhibit only nonspecific symptoms. This usually indicates that the Lyme disease infection is in its early stages or that the blood test has produced a false positive result. An EM rash is a sure sign of Lyme disease, so your doctor can diagnose and treat you without the need for laboratory tests. For CSF tests, however, a little more recovery is involved, as patients need between one and four hours of recovery time in the clinic or hospital. Live in, or have recently visited, a tick-infested area. Some doctors may diagnose and treat you if you have fewer than the required number of positive IgM or IgG bands, because you do still demonstrate some antibody response against Lyme disease. A C 6 antibody level > 30 U/mL is considered clinically significant and consistent with a clinical Lyme disease infection. Some people who receive antibiotics early in disease may not have a fully developed antibody response or may only develop an antibody response at levels too low to be detected by the test. In some specific instances, however, it can also be seen as the antibody levels being too low to detect. However, if you live in a low risk area where Lyme is infrequently reported, your doctor may advise you to monitor for symptoms rather than conducting any blood tests. Dont be afraid to insist on an initial screening to rule it out if its something that worries you. The positive predictive value of Lyme Elisa for the diagnosis of Lyme disease in children. 2. The location of the darker bars in your test result determines whether you likely have Lyme disease. If you have been traveling, your doctor might test you for species of Borrelia that cause Lyme disease in other parts of the world. The skin is cleaned, and then a larger needle is inserted, drawing out CSF. A positive ELISA result must be followed up with a Western blot test. Lyme disease can be particularly difficult to detect or treat because the bacteria can actually create a shell which prevents the antibodies from attacking it. There are neurological symptoms, including cognitive impairment, memory loss, or mood changes, that may be more difficult to notice without monitoring yourself and journaling consistently. Lyme Disease: Diagnosis and Testing. Some good questions include: The more you knowand the better you engage with the process of diagnosis and testingthe better off youll be. The purpose of the most common type of Lyme disease testing is to determine whether you have developed antibodies as a result of past exposure to the Borrelia bacteria that cause Lyme disease. Much depends on where you're having the work done. wikiHow, Inc. is the copyright holder of this image under U.S. and international copyright laws. For this patient, the pretest probability is moderately low, taking into account the endemicity of the disease and the presence of prolonged , unexplained nonspecific symptoms. Because these tests are newer, not all doctors have experience with them and not all labs have access to them. By comparison, MRI demonstrated brain abnormalities in only 14% of study patients. Saving Lives, Protecting People. This image is not<\/b> licensed under the Creative Commons license applied to text content and some other images posted to the wikiHow website. A persistently high QC6 suggests treatment may not have been complete or that the dog became reinfected after treatment was stopped. Tick testing. Free shipping . If either or both of your tests come back negative, your doctor may still diagnose Lyme disease, particularly if you recently developed Lyme-like symptoms, regardless of your test results. Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website. The test is done to help confirm the diagnosis of Lyme disease. Alongside evaluation of symptoms, several tests may be needed. Updated CDC Recommendation for Serologic Diagnosis of Lyme Disease, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID), Laboratory tests that are not recommended, HHS federal research updates on Lyme disease diagnostics, Surveillance explained and available data, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, The likelihood that the patient has been exposed to infected blacklegged ticks, The possibility that other illnesses may cause similar symptoms, Results of laboratory tests, when indicated. If you and your doctor continue to be in disagreement, you may want to seek out a second opinion. A blood test does not only detect Lyme disease it is the most accurate and preferred test for diagnosing the disease. For one thing, many symptoms of later-stage Lyme are nonspecific, meaning that they may be caused by several different conditions. Describe any differences in your mental or physical condition since you were bitten by the tick, even if you dont think the difference is related. If joint lameness is the presenting sign, improvement may be noted after 3-5 days starting antibiotics.