Blood Culturing Improves Lyme Disease PCR Sensitivity

MILPITAS, Calif. – After many years of research and development, IGeneX, a leading tick-borne disease testing lab, introduced culture-enhanced PCR testing (cePCR) for all of the major tick-borne illnesses.

Until now, culturing tick-borne pathogens has been very difficult and too expensive to be used for clinical diagnosis.

In culturing, a clinical sample from the body (e.g. blood) is incubated in media. During this incubation period of roughly two weeks, micro-organisms in the sample grow and multiply. The sample is then tested by PCR to identify the pathogens. If a pathogen grows in culture, it is guaranteed to be active and not a remnant of a prior infection.

“We are very excited to be the first lab to offer culturing for all of the major tick-borne illnesses,” said Dr. Jyotsna Shah, PhD, President and Laboratory Director of IGeneX. “During the R&D phase, we were amazed with all of the pathogens that we were able to grow and validate through DNA sequencing. This information will help patients get the correct diagnosis and ultimately a better outcome.”

Advantages of Culture Enhanced PCR

• Much more sensitive than regular PCR
• The only 100% specific method for pathogen identification
• Obtaining cultures before antibiotic use improves the chances of identifying the offending microorganism
• Screens for seven tick-borne diseases in one test: Lyme disease, Tick-Borne Relapsing Fever, Bartonella, Babesia, Anaplasma, Ehrlichia, and Rickettsia

Lyme disease, the most prevalent tick-borne disease, is one of the fastest-growing infectious diseases in the United States, affecting nearly 500,000 people annually.

“When a tick-borne illness is misdiagnosed, the disease-causing infection has more time to spread, which can lead to severe or chronic health issues,” says Dr. Shah. “That can lead to years of escalating costs for patients. With our new cePCR tests, the goal is to help patients get an early and accurate diagnosis.”

Individual cePCR tests and cePCR test panels are now available to order. For more information on pricing, please contact IGeneX at 1-800-832-3200 or visit igenex.com.