Infection diagnosis by taking advantage of serology methods

At the first stage it’s necessary to show the presence of specific antibodies type IgM or IgG (depending on clinical presentation) by the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method (ELISA). Next, the patients with positive or doubtful results, it’s necessary to perform marking by Western-blot method in order to verify the previous results (according to Diagnosis and Treatment of Lyme borreliosis recommended by the Polish Association of Epidemiologists and Infectious Diseases). The two-stage immune diagnostics recommended results from necessity to supplement deficiencies of single tests. The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay tests (ELISA) are of very high sensitivity, however, they sometimes (depending on specificity) may provide false negative or false positive results. On the contrary, Western blot tests are very specifying, yet they are not as sensitive as ELISA tests. According to the organization determining standards of borreliosis diagnostics in Europe - EUCALB (European Concerted Action Lyme Borreliosis) minimal specificity (correctness of results) of ELISA method ought to exceed 90%. Tests ELISA used by CBDNA hold the specificity in class IgG -100%, and in class IgM - 95%, thus far more than the limit.