Indeterminate HSV 2 Results

[gd80923]

I need some help clarifying my HSV status and figuring out what next steps I should take. Here’s my timeline:

9/22/2014:
Lab results are >0.91 for both HSV 1 & 2 on the LabCorp HSV 1 and 2-Specific An, IgG (LC-164905) test.

12/22/2014:
Last sexual contact with a single partner. We had unprotected sex. As far as I know, none of my previous partners are HSV positive. Since September I had about 10 different unprotected sexual encounters with two different partners. One partner was over the course of two months, the other over the course of less than 1 week and only two sexual encounters.

2/17/2015:
>0.91 for HSV 1 and .99 for HSV 2 from the same test as before. The reference range for this test is a 0.00-0.90 index. My doctor’s office diagnosed me with HSV 2 at this point and deemed the results “consistent with prior exposure”.

2/18/2015:
Serum sent for Western Blot test. I received the results on 4/1/2015 as “indeterminate”.

I did not request specifically an HSV test from my doctor and was looking to do a routine STD test initially. I have never had any symptoms or lesions. I’m not entirely sure this applies but just in case I’ll also mention that I had chickenpox at age 6 and didn’t get the varicella vaccine until after.

At this point, I’m not sure what my status is. Would you recommend another Western Blot test?

[Terri Warren]

Yes, I think you need a western blot 16 weeks from your last sexual contact ,just to be certain you are not in the process of developing antibody now. If that is also indeterminate the feeling is that you are not infected, that there is another protein in your body that is triggering a partial response on the western blot. This is frustrating, I know!

If you are interested, we are doing a clinical trial of a new antibody test, developed to try to begin to clarify those with indeterminate western blots. If you are at all interested, you should call Rene at the clinic and she will give you all the details and send you a kit to take to a Quest lab near you. You would not get the results of the new test but you would be helping others while you await your next western blot. What do you think?

Terri

[gd80923]

Hi Terri,

I wanted to make a correction to the timeline above. The date that I had my blood drawn for the Western Blot test was 3/18 and not 2/18. So that would have been 12 weeks from the last sexual contact.

I’ve just sent out my blood yesterday for the second Western Blot test, so 4/15. That’s 16 weeks out. So a few questions:

1. Is the expectation that I would receive another indeterminate? What are the chances that that is the result I would receive over a positive?

2. If I do receive an indeterminate result, can we then consider it as a negative status?

3. Was the LabCorp test I referenced the ELISA HerpesSelect test? I asked my doctor what the brand name of the test was and he was not able to answer my question.

Also, I did contact your clinic regarding the study and should be sending out my bio sample today. I’m glad to help further the research.

• This reply was modified 8 years, 5 months ago by gd80923.

[Terri Warren]

1. You may well have another indeterminate yes. If you do, that likely means you are NOT making antibody from a recent infection, so I think you can interpret this as a good thing.
2 see above 😉
3. No, LabCorp runs the Captia test.

That’s great about the study! Thanks so much for doing that.
All of you out there with an indeterminate western blot, please contact Rene at our clinic if you would like to participate in our study evaluating a new antibody test to try to resolve indeterminate results.

Terri

[gd80923]

Hi Terri,

I just received my Western Blot test from 16 weeks out and it came back as indeterminate again. My doctor says the interpretation was as follows:

No change in antibody status. The reactivity may or may not be due to HSV specific antibodies. 15-20% of patients require 6 months or more to fully develop full antibody profile.

Should I test again in 6 months or can I confidently operate with an assumed status of negative? Should I have any future partners get tested as well?

• This reply was modified 8 years, 4 months ago by gd80923.

[Terri Warren]

I am very surprised that that interpretation was on your test result from UW. I have never ever seen this interpretation before. I have written to UW to ask about this. When I hear back I can respond to you. The person who will talk to me about this is out of the clinic until the 6th.

Terri

[gd80923]

Hi Terri,

Was looking for a status update on this. Were you able to speak with your contact? I’ll be awaiting your response.

Thanks!

[Terri Warren]

Yes, ,I spoke with them and they are leaving the interpretation on the western blot that currently comes with the test results that we get which is that if the concern is new infection, patients should wait 12-16 weeks for a final blood draw. They did say that occasionally someone will take longer to seroconvert, but that that is usually influenced by the taking of antiviral medicine.

Terri

[gd80923]

Ok, so considering that I never had any symptoms and do not know that any of my prior partners were exposed to the virus, should we at this point be able to consider my results to indicate a negative status? I also am not taking any antiviral medicines though I did have my last Hep B vaccine on January 20th. I’m not sure if that could be related.

[Terri Warren]

I’m sorry, but you have used up all of your questions for your first subscription. If you need more information, you can certainly renew your subscription.

Terri

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