I think they gave me the wrong lyme test. can you look at this

[motox320]

I had what the paper said "LYME REFLUX SCREEN"

it was done locally at a Quest lab, not sent out of anything.

is this the western blot or not?

or is it a waste of time test?

how common is a false positive?

[JackieCalifornia]

It appears to be 'reflex', not reflux.  

According to a lab website I found:

"This is a screening test for Lyme Antibody by EIA that will reflex to confirmatory Western Blot testing if positive."  So this is the first tier of testing for Lyme under CDC-type standards.  The lab website continues with this detail:

==> Interp for Lyme IgG by WB:

--Positive:  Presence of any of 5 bands of 18, 23, 28, 30, 39,
41, 45, 58, 66 or 93 kDa.  

--Negative:  Any pattern that fails to meet the positive criteria.


==> Interp for Lyme IgM by WB  

--Positive-Presence of any 2 bands of 23, 39 or 41 kDa.  If antibodies to the 37 kDa antigen are present it is considered to be an additional criteria band.  

--Negative-Any pattern which fails to meet the positive criteria.

================================================
Those are the interpretation standards used by this particular lab I found online.  So it looks like the test you had may be the first level screening test for Lyme.  If you don't achieve 5 positive bands needed on the IgG and/or 2 positive bands on the IgM (per CDC standards), then you don't go on to the second stage of testing, the Western blot test.

**I'm not medically trained, so you should ask your doctor these questions.  This is just stuff I found online and it may be wholly wrong.**

[patsy10]

What was the result?  If it was just one number saying something like lyme antibody then it was probably the ELISA or similar.

There are far more false negatives than positives.