. By the time were able to see the Dermatologist, his sore started to heal so they could no longer culture. She said it could have been either HSV or Empitigo, however impossible to tell at that point.
I asked the Derm. to do a blood test to see if we could rule out HSV (he was having other blood test anyway for his normal exam) The blood was drawn approx 30 days after possible contact. The results were from Labcorp.
HSV 1 IgG Type Spec <0.91 (NEGATIVE)
HSV 2 IgG Type Spec <0.91 (NEGATIVE)
HSV, IgM 1/2 Combination 1.01 (EQUIVOCAL 0.91 to 1.09)
While we have not spoke to the Derm yet, the technician who relayed the results said everything was negative.
however after receiving a copy of the Tests, I saw the IgM was EQUIVOCAL.
I did a few searches and found an abundance of information about the time frames involved and that they may differ between children and adults.
Can we conclude anything from this set of results?
What further testing would be appropriate and when?
the igm herpes testing was inappropriate to have been drawn on your son. actually any blood testing at his age was inappropriate. they aren't accurate in children his age and the herpes igm test has such a high false positive rate that it shouldn't be drawn on anyone other than newborns
. we don't recommend igg blood testing in children under the age of 14.
at this point, absolutely nothing to do unless this reoccurs. if it does, being seen within 48 hours of the appearance of symptoms for a culture is the best course of action.