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You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link. CDC is not responsible for Section compliance accessibility on other federal or private website. You are here Home » Lyme Disease Test. Top of the page. Test Overview A Lyme disease test detects antibodies to the Lyme disease bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi in the blood.
Antibody tests Antibody tests are the most commonly used tests to help identify Lyme disease. There are two types of antibody tests to detect Lyme disease. This common and rapid test to identify Lyme disease antibodies is the most sensitive screening test for Lyme disease. Western blot test. It is most often done to detect a chronic Lyme disease infection. Other tests Polymerase chain reaction PCR test. Symptoms may include: An expanding red rash with a pale center. This is sometimes called a "bull's-eye" rash.
Extreme tiredness. Headache and stiff neck. Muscle and joint pain. Testing is most accurate when you have risk factors for Lyme disease or symptoms of the disease.
How To Prepare In general, there's nothing you have to do before this test, unless your doctor tells you to. How It Is Done A health professional uses a needle to take a blood sample, usually from the arm.
How It Feels When a blood sample is taken, you may feel nothing at all from the needle. Some people with nervous system symptoms may also get a spinal tap , which allows a healthcare provider to detect brain and spinal cord inflammation and look for antibodies or genetic material of B. Antibody Tests. Healthcare providers cannot always firmly establish whether Lyme disease bacteria are causing symptoms.
Antibiotics that are given early during infection may also prevent your antibodies from reaching detectable levels, even though Lyme disease bacteria are causing your symptoms.
If your EIA is positive, your healthcare provider should confirm it with a second, more specific test called a Western blot. Both test results must be positive to support a diagnosis of Lyme disease. A positive EIA test doesn't necessarily mean you have Lyme disease either as false-positives do happen.
Tick Testing. Even if a tick is tested and found to be harboring the Lyme Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria, it may not have necessarily transmitted the bacteria to anyone it has bitten. Because testing the tick is not a good indicator of Lyme disease transmission, most hospital or state-run medical labs will not test ticks for Lyme bacteria. New Tests Under Development. Healthcare providers need tests to distinguish between people who have recovered from the previous infection and those who continue to suffer from active infection.
To improve the accuracy of Lyme disease diagnosis, National Institutes of Health NIH -supported researchers are re-evaluating existing tests and developing a number of new tests that promise to be more reliable than those currently available. NIH scientists are developing tests that use the highly sensitive genetic engineering technique known as polymerase chain reaction PCR as well as microarray technology to detect extremely small quantities of the genetic material of the Lyme disease bacterium or its products in body tissues and fluids.
Since the genome of B. Lyme disease is sometimes called "The Great Imitator" because it so often mimics many other illnesses, according to LymeDisease. Conversely, other types of arthritis or other autoimmune diseases can be misdiagnosed as Lyme disease.
Symptoms of Lyme disease can mimic conditions such as:. Your healthcare provider will consider all of these possibilities when making a diagnosis.
Lyme disease has been diagnosed long enough, and the infectious bacteria that causes it is easy enough to identify, that most patients with early Lyme disease are able to find a healthcare provider who can accurately diagnose it.
Even those patients who are originally told by a healthcare provider that their symptoms are all in their head are often able to find another practitioner to help them get the accurate diagnosis. But in some cases, patients find great difficulty in getting a Lyme disease diagnosis. And that's because there is a controversy that surrounds such a diagnosis for patients who don't suffer symptoms until long after they were possibly bitten by a tick.
While some people exhibit symptoms, including the classic "bull's eye" rash, early after a tick bite, it's possible that symptoms won't show up for months or years after being infected.
Furthermore, some patients are treated early with antibiotics, but those antibiotics don't completely destroy the Lyme Borrelia bacteria, or other symptoms occur even when no sign of any lingering infection remains. Although no one denies that some people treated appropriately for Lyme disease go on to have persistent symptoms, there is a huge controversy over what it's called, what causes it , and how it's best treated. Using the term "chronic" suggests that an infection and inflammation are still present, but for PTLDS, there is little evidence that this is the case.
The debate is less about whether patients are still suffering physical symptoms and more about if it's caused by persistent infection and whether people with PTLDS should be treated with antibiotics—a treatment that may not only be ill-advised but could create bigger problems for these patients. In fact, the CDC is joined by other well-known and well-respected medical organizations and authorities in the United States in clarifying that available evidence does not support the idea that "chronic Lyme disease" is caused by persistent infection with the Lyme bacterium; this is why they prefer the name "post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome.
Further, healthcare professionals who treat PTLDS with long-term antibiotics may be putting their patients at unnecessary risk and increasing rates of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Pursuing the Chronic Diagnosis. If you believe you do have PTLDS, or chronic Lyme disease, find a healthcare provider who understands the current science behind Lyme disease and post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, even if they won't call it chronic Lyme.
Read more about preventing lyme disease. Yes, most Lyme disease cases resolve with a round of antibiotics for two to four weeks, but some people continue to experience symptoms for several months. Untreated Lyme disease can lead to more severe symptoms and complications, including severe headaches and neck stiffness, more "bull's eye" rashes on other areas of the body, facial palsy, arthritis, pain in joints and bones, muscle pain, heart palpitations, dizziness, and nerve pain.
Early detection and treatment are key to preventing these more severe symptoms from occurring. The incubation period for Lyme disease is three to 30 days, and symptoms may appear at any time after the incubation period.
Sign up for our Health Tip of the Day newsletter, and receive daily tips that will help you live your healthiest life. Lyme Disease. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Lyme disease is an infection caused by bacteria carried by ticks. Lyme disease tests look for signs of infection in your blood or cerebrospinal fluid.
You can get Lyme disease if an infected tick bites you. Ticks can bite you anywhere on your body, but they usually bite in hard-to-see parts of your body such as the groin, scalp, and armpits.
The ticks that cause Lyme disease are tiny, as small as a speck of dirt. So you may not know you have been bitten. If left untreated, Lyme disease can cause serious health problems affecting your joints, heart, and nervous system. But if diagnosed early, most cases of Lyme disease can be cured after a few weeks of treatment with antibiotics.
You may need a Lyme disease test if you have symptoms of infection. The first symptoms of Lyme disease usually show up between three and 30 days after the tick bite. They may include:. You may also need a Lyme disease test if you don't have symptoms, but are at risk for infection. You may be at a higher risk if you:. Lyme disease is most treatable in its early stages, but you may still benefit from testing later on.
Symptoms that may show up weeks or months after the tick bite. If you have symptoms of Lyme disease affecting your nervous system, such as neck stiffness and numbness in hands or feet, you may need a test of cerebrospinal fluid CSF.
CSF is a clear liquid found in your brain and spinal cord. During this test, your CSF will be collected through a procedure called a lumbar puncture, also known as a spinal tap. During the procedure:.
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