lyme

i  was diagonsed with lyme my lyme reflex is 1.33 and for the Lyme IgM western blot i am positive for 21 and 41kda.  can anyone tell me what this means

thank you

[JackieCalifornia]

Greetings --

Sorry but I don't know what lyme reflex is -- maybe someone else does here --?

The Western blot positives:  band 21 is of unknown importance and indication, so may not have anything to do with Lyme; band 41 could be Lyme but could also be other things, since band 41 indicates that protein from the flagellin (or little whiplike tail) of a spirochete form of bacteria is present, and Lyme is not the only disease that is caused by spirochetal [spiral-shaped] bacteria.

Did you get a copy of the test?  Some labs only give a 'positive' or 'negative' reading, which is not very helpful in such a gray area of diagnosis.  Better is to have a report that shows how strong those readings are.  I'm guessing the report may have come from Quest labs, and most Lyme specialists don't use them because the data reported on is not sufficiently detailed.

BUT I'm not medically trained, so you can't rely on me to tell you what this means -- talk with your MD, and if you are not comfortable with what you hear, consider getting a second opinion from a Lyme specialist.  If you would like to tell us any more about your situation, people here could perhaps comment, but no one here as far as I know is medically trained.

Sorry not to be of more help.  Hope you feel better soon!