No specific scores given

[Comeintomygward]

Hi All,

I recently received a Herpeselect Type 1/2 IGG test from Quest Diagnostics. The results were as follows:

HSV 1 Type Specific <0.90
HSV 2 Type Specific <0.90

I'm extremely elated that since they both say <0.90, I'm to interpret them as negative. However, I'm just a bit curious as to why they didn't give me an exact index score, since that seems to be the case in most other people's experiences on here. It seems this person experienced a similar delivery in results, and it comforts me that the very knowledgeable Fleetwood commented on it:

http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Herpes/Test-results-help/show/735403

Can anyone shine some light on this? Has anyone else had this experience?

[Fleetwood20]

And yes a positive score would most likely have been reported in the out of range column.

[Fleetwood20]

It is conclusive that you do not have HSV2.

No need to be surprised at this outcome. The odds of transmission to a male with protected sex are about 1 in 5000 per episode. Unless you had symptoms, there was no real need to test.

[Comeintomygward]

Thank you so much very much for the clarification. I had protected sex with someone who was HSV2 positive and this is my 16 week result and I'm almost in disbelief, so forgive me for the excessive emotional questioning. So in other words, I have nothing to worry about and I'm negative?

As far as my second question goes, what would In or Out of Range imply? If it was positive, would it have been under the Out of Range column?

[Fleetwood20]

Some labs report negative scores as <0.90 to avoid creating confusion and unnecessarily concerning people over two common misconceptions:
(a) that a non zero score means there are some antibodies present; which isn't true owing to an inbuilt minimum value that varies by test as well as unrelated proteins that stick to the testing antigens in some circumstances
(b) that an increase from one test to the next is indicative of emerging antibodies; which again isn't true.

[Comeintomygward]

I would like to correct myself: Grace was the one who commented on the link I provided on my first comment.

[Comeintomygward]

Forgive me for I feel this is perhaps even more silly than my last question, however I would also like to add that the results were under the column "In Range." The other column it could have been under was "Out of Range." I'm not exactly certain what these two columns are trying to convey.