my brain is dumb it is the Flow Cytometry antigen test.

Ok you have drawn my interest,

1. what's the cost?

2. does this test look for Lyme & coinfections?

I have had buckets full of blood test done at Quest & IgeneX, to this point I have only shown positive for EBV, and have had positive bands 41 & 39 on the Lyme tests.

Thanks

What's so special about another test for Lyme? Do we shell out more money to confirm our suspicions?

No you gave me the number not the information. You sent me there for the q-ribb. The doctor told me about this. And he said it is not the use of a microscope.

Well the doctor said they use flouresent lights that somehow react with the BB. And It is very accurate unless the BB has moved to much out of your blood and into the tissues and the specific sample of blood did not yield enough BB, and said the clinical diagnosis is still most reliable. But this test is very good. He said they arent doing the microscopic type test w the picture. Which i wish they did still do that would be so cool to have. I dont know if i sound wierd for saying that. Do you have a picture dowa? Well the Flow cytometry is used in other diseases and I believe the central florida research center developed it for lyme. But the government did regulate it. You score a 0.02 % or under which is negative 0.04 is positive and they believe 0.03 is pos but the gov made them call it borderline. Said they have seen .15% . They use flouresent lyme antibody and flow your blood through them 50,000 reactive events are counted in one minute and reported as a percent.

Well the blood test looks for your antibodies that you have developed. The flow test has grown its own lyme antibodies then they infuse them with flouresent lights and combine these homemade antibodies with your blood sample hopefully containing some of the BB which will react causing the flourescence to light up if the antibodies react with the implanted antibodies. a machine rapidly processed the blood 50,000 times. and tells you how it reacted or not. The flow identifies adult and cyst form BB. the q-ribb simply looked for the bb under a microscope. Do you see the diff.

There is not a name of the test on the Fry report, it just says Blood smear. They send your blood to him on a glass slide and he somehow enlarges it and sends a photo to you. He did mine twice and it came back with two different "possible" diagnosis, first bart and then Ehrlichia. Then at the bottom of the test report it says, "additional lab work is required for diagnosis." So, I am confused about these photos if the lab work is necessary anyway. I still am not sure if I am positive or not, like many here. Its so frustrating.  D

That is how I understood it also. When you have Lyme for a long time, it is no longer in the bloodstream and I think that is exactly why alot of us are testing negative. I wonder if it is possible to do a tissue biopsy if it goes into the tissue. I know it would be an invasive test but honestly I would do it if it would give me a definate answer.  D