![]() A bulls-eye rash at the bite location is a trademark symptom of Lyme disease, but only about half of the people who are infected with the bacteria develop the rash. The timing of the symptoms is often used by a medical provider to establish a time line to a tick bite or exposure to a high-risk region where the disease is commonly transmitted.īecause the ticks that can spread Lyme disease are often the size of a pinhead, the ticks might not even be notice. This is especially true when the disease has reached the chronic stage. The problem with Lyme disease is that the bacteria can create a hard “shell” around themselves when inactive so that the blood tests are unable to detect them. Lyme Disease is Remarkably Difficult to Diagnose At this point, a medical provider will order a Western blot test to confirm the presence of Lyme disease. ![]() If any of these tests come back as positive, then other samples will be used to track the stage of the disease to determine if it has reached the chronic infection stage. This blood test does not always detect the presence of the disease, so patients that have persistent symptoms after having the test may be re-tested in a few weeks. Recent infections are much easier to detect and an IgM and IgG blood test will often be ordered as complimentary information gathering tools. The Lyme disease blood test is used to discover if someone who has the symptoms of a Borrelia burgdorferi infection actually has the bacteria in their bloodstream.
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