This test requires a blood draw, so please ensure you can refer to a phlebotomist in the clients area before you order this test.

Elispot looks at the T cell response and IGG/IGM looks at B cells/Antibodies. 

Some people don't produce antibodies and have a more active T cell response. 

In an ideal world to assess an infection, a practitioner should look at both sides of the immune system response, in other words, Eli-spot for the T cells/cellular response and IGG/IGM for humoral/B cell/antibody response.

To check for an active infection with the T cells, the Elispot is recommended.

Cytomegalovirus infection (CMV) is a viral infection that rarely causes obvious illness. The virus that causes CMV is part of the herpes virus family and, like other herpes viruses, may become dormant for a period of time and then be reactivated. CMV mainly affects young children but it is estimated that, by age 30 in the United States, half of all adults are, or have been, infected. The virus can pass from an infected, pregnant mother to her child through the shared blood supply (umbilical cord).

Physicians recognize three clinical forms of CMV. These include: (1) CMV inclusion disease of the newborn, which ranges in severity from being without symptoms to being a severe disease affecting the liver, spleen and central nervous system, resulting in possible developmental disabilities; (2) Acute acquired CMV infection, which is similar to infectious mononucleosis and characterized by fever, malaise, skeletal-muscular pain, and the absence of a sore throat; (3) CMV in immuno-compromised persons (for instance, people who have had organ transplants or who have HIV) with increased risk for difficult eye infections (CMV retinitis), gastrointestinal CMV, and encephalitis.

Indications:

• Chronic Fatique Sydrome (CFS)
• Scleroderma
• Meniere´s disease
• Lichen planus
• Pulmonary fibrosis
• Aphtous stomatitis
  
  
  

Overview

Measures current cellular activity against Cytomegalovirus.

CMV-lytic antigen: sign for replication of infectious CMV virions

Lytic phase = activity phase = replication of the virus

CMV-latent antigen: sign for CMV latency with no production of infectious CMV virions

Latent phase = sleeping phase, which can be reactivated = past infection

Practical

3 x ACD/CPDA tubes

This sample requires a blood draw