Help with IgG accuracy studies

[chov22]

Hi Terri. Are there any formal documents or medical resources published outside of the herpes handbook that I can show to my doctor? She keeps claiming that if you are negative via IgG then you are 100% negative no matter what. I’d like to show her a study where that is not always true.

Thank you.

[chov22]

Just following up, I specifically wanted to see if there was anything published regarding the 30% and 8% IgG missed infections.

[Terri Warren]

Performance of Commercial Enzyme-Linked Immunoassays for Diagnosis of Herpes Simplex Virus-1 and Herpes Simplex Virus-2 Infection in a Clinical Setting.
Agyemang E, Le QA, Warren T, Magaret AS, Selke S, Johnston C, Jerome KR, Wald A. Sex Transm Dis. 2017 Dec;44(12):763-767.

Terri

[chov22]

Thank you Terri. Very helpful.

For my follow up I wanted to ask if the western blot picks up on any “early antibodies”. I understand the time to wait is 14-16 weeks before testing. I also understand there is an IgM test (recommended against) and an IgG test. Is the western blot simply a much better IgG test, meaning it is looking strictly for IgG antibodies alone but in a more efficient manner?

I guess I’m trying to understand if Western Blot is specifically meant for the following purposes: proving false positives wrong, confirming low positives, and picking up that 30% and %8 missed by IgG…

OR could it also be a better alternative than the IgG at picking up potential infections for people that may not have fully seroconverted yet on the IgG test.

[Terri Warren]

the time wait is 12 weeks. If done earlier, an indeterminate result could indicate that a full antibody panel has not yet been built or it could be due to a non-specific protein, not possible to know if testing is done sooner than 12 weeks. The western blot looks for all 16 antibody proteins and four must be present to be called positive while the IgG looks for a single antibody protein that is different between HSV 1 and 2.
All the things you mentioned are reasons to do the blot.
The full western blot becomes positive slower than the IgG

Terri

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