Please help with EBV lab questions.

[rspetersen]

Hello,

I've had FM/CFS for ten years now. Lately it's been worse than ever. I was looking at some labs done back in February 2009, and came upon some Epstein-'Barr numbers that, I think, mean I was once infected; however, the doctor never mentioned it, so I'm not sure.

I've read quite a few posts here about the labs, but my numbers are so different from most others that i'm not sure whether they mean anything or not.  Labs:

EBV AB VCA, IGG       1741
EBV AB VCA IGM        9
EBV Early antigen AB, IGG   84
EBV Nuclear Antigen AB, IGG   1051

The normal range for each of these is 0-99, so it appear two of the numbers are normal, but two of them are high? Do they all have to be high to confirm EB?

Thank you in advance.

Jeanne

[sporque]

If your Dr. Didn't mention anything you have nothing to worry about.  I'm sure if those numbers were off your doctor would have mentioned something...One thing to remember is that the antibody test for people infected in the past does not indicate much of anything as far as symptoms go.  The interesting thing about some of these antibodies is they do not do anything to control the virus..But they can indicate a recent/current/past infection.  
There was a time, a long time ago, when it was speculated that the EBV virus can cause CFS, this has since been disproved.  So nothing to worry about there.  

[9DodgeFan]

Hi, from these test results, it looks like you have had a past EBV infection (No surprise there, probably!).  Not necessarily trying to start an argument here, but there are many people/studies that are hesitant to rule out a correlation between EBV and FM/CFS.  Granted, a similar correlation could be made for many diseases, as about 95% of adults have EBV.  With that said though, it's quite possible that you are experiencing EBV relapses, which could have a significant impact on your FM/CFS.  Have you been having any of the "classic" symptoms of EBV (fever, swollen glands, etc.)?