View Single Post
Old 07-14-2011, 08:46 AM
Stellatum Stellatum is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 1,215
10 yr Member
Stellatum Stellatum is offline
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 1,215
10 yr Member
Default negative blood test for antibodies

Quote:
Originally Posted by AnnieB3 View Post
http://ajpendo.physiology.org/conten...1/E31.abstract

Abby, Read that.

And because of the darn medical journals, I can't put an article on here, at least yet, that shows this info:

80% of ACh antibodies are cell bound and 20% are circulating antibodies.

As I suspected. If the little suckers are having fun destroying your cells/tissues, then why would they have any interest in being drawn out by a lab tech to engage in a test?!
I'm quoting AnnieB3's post here in its own thread, because so many MG patients test negative for MG antibodies, which can delay or even prevent their diagnosis. I've seen different statistics about how many of us are seronegative, but my totally anecdotally based unscientific impression is that the numbers given are way too low. And think of it this way: if the factoid is "15% of MG patients are seronegative," that only really means "15% of MG patients who are diagnosed in spite of being seronegative are seronegative." Since being seronegative makes it difficult to get a diagnosis, then it follows that the true number of seronegative MG patients is significantly higher. Am I making sense here?

Seronegative patients only get a diagnosis if their other symptoms are text-book (and the text-books don't know everything!) or if they have access to a very knowledgeable and open-minded specialist. It's a known fact that 100% of patients with atypical MG don't have typical MG.

Abby
Stellatum is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote