Please Help-Confused on Equivocal Results

[AllincinciParticipant]

Hello, Will appreciate your insight to my situation. On 9/23/18 I had protected sex with a unknown at the time HSV2 and 1 carrier.

I have had no symptoms and the the following tests were all IGG:

Tested on 10/1/18 and was negative.
Tested again on 10/15/18 (3 weeks from encounter) and result was 1.00.
Retested on 10/29/18 (5 weeks post encounter) and result was .94.
Tested again on 11/12/18 (8 weeks post encounter) and result was negative. Tested again on 1/29/19 (18 weeks post encounter) and result was 1.01.

What’s the probability I am infected?
Should I continue to be tested or have a western blot test?
Is there anything else that could cause my IGG to be equivocal on a regular basis?

Thank you for your help……

[Terri WarrenKeymaster]

You don’t mention if this is your result for hSV 1 or HSV 2?
If for HSV 2, I doubt that you are infected but I recently had a patient who had a 1.03 on her IgG and confirmed as positive by western blot so I’m less certain these days about equivocals being negative. you may have a protein in your blood that has a similar molecular weight to HSV 2 and that is tripping the IgG in error. The western blot will clarify your situation. This is more likely to be a negative if the result is for an HSV 2 antibody test than HSV 1.

Terri

[AllincinciParticipant]

Thank you for your response. These are all HSV 2 results. The most recent test on 3/12/19, which is 24 weeks post exposure was a 1.01. The labcorp reflex has always been negative. In the prior message I’ve listed several other test results that were all equivocal or negative.

Would you recommend having the western blot done?

You mentioned it could be a protein with a similiar weight triggering the result. Should I be concerned that this protein is something Serious?

Thank you for your help and insight.
Take care.

[Terri WarrenKeymaster]

We don’t know what the protein is related to but we have no worry that it is related to anything concerning. I don’t think a western blot is necessary UNLESS you cannot put this worry to rest without it. Sometimes peace of mind is worth $345.

Terri

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