Help on positive ELISA IgG lyme test

Hello everyone,

Today I was tested positive for Lyme disease by my own doctor, I had an ELISA test (pretty sure), with negative IgM and positive IgG at 70+ AU/mL. I was hoping you could help me understand what this means?

My symptom history is 2-3 years of - in chronological order:

- Chronic Headache

- Neck pain

- Tingling in foot and hand

- Period of balance difficulties (late 2013)

- Knee joint pain (late 2014)

- Balance difficulties again (from May 2015 ongoing)

- Massive muscle and joint pain, primarily back and shoulders (June 2015 ongoing)

- Heavy fatigue (May 2015 ongoing)

- Sleep disturbances (May 2015 ongoing)


I am being tested for MS by neurologists, but now with this test, can I be reasonably sure I have Lyme or is it possible to have a false positive.

I really feel like crap these last months and would like to begin treatment before more damage happens if I do have neuroborreliosis or chronic lyme.

eric, if it was an ELISA was positive it doesn't mean you have Lyme because it is a screening test. You need to have a Western Blot done. If you can, the Igenex is a better test than Labcorp (or the local Lab your doc usually uses).

Insurance may cover the Igenex Western Blot since you have a positive ELISA but it's a specialty lab so they might not. The problem is a negative Western Blot from Labcorp (or Quest or others) does not mean you don't have Lyme.

You need to make sure no matter which test you have done that they report the bands and not just a positive or negative result. Some of the bands are Lyme specific and if one of those bands is positive then you have been exposed to Lyme. You will only get a positive result if the specific number of bands so you really need to know which show positive.

If you get the results for the bands you can post your results here and many people can help you interpret the results.

Kim