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Neurology (Expert Forum)
Equivocal lyme test and low IgG
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Equivocal lyme test and low IgG
by Anthony-Cusimano, Jan 24, 1999 12:00AM
Hi,
I've been ill for around 15 months, done the right things for my Doc. and seen all the specialist I've been referred to without too many complaints.
I've got al the typical Lyme symptoms and even had the bite on Marylands eastern shore to prove it, I haven't been well since.
I have always had a few bands appear on Lyme tests but not enough to be clinically diagnosed. My last lyme tests came back: Equiv. on the IgG, with bands 37, 41, and 93.
I also just got back a low IgG on an immunoglobulins test. 669 on a scale of 694-1618
What does a low IgG mean, I've seen explanations for a high level but not a low one.
I'm now being sent to Hopkins Immunology Dept., and if they don't come up with anything, my very cautious Infectious Disease Doc. said she would treat me intraveneously. This is something she has been totally against since I started seeing her 8 months ago unless I came back with a positive test. I was shocked when she told me. I'm cautiously optomistic.
Every doc. I've seen has dismissed the tick bite as not being a possible cause. All the legitimate literature I've read seems to say there is no definative test out there, so how can this possibility be tossed out the window so quickly/
I'm a 34 year old male with no prior health problems until 3 weeks after being bitten by a tick in 1997.
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In your case a low IgG may have no significance, this result is slightly
below the normal range ( 3-4% ), in a test which already has a very wide
range of normal.
5% of the population who have no disease fall outside these ranges in any case so the chances are that this is not a medically significant result.
IgG can be abnormally low in people who have an immune deficiency, these are
frequently hereditary and the patient gives a history of frequent infections since childhood.
The best course would be to repeat the test, in these borderline cases the
second test is often within the normal range.
I do not know your symptoms or physical findings aor other test results so
I cannot speculate as to why the people who have seen you do not find the
tick-bite significant, it sounds impressive from what you describe but I
suggest you ask the people concerned why they are so confident in
excluding it.
