Laboratory and Diagnostic Tools

The laboratory of the BCA-clinic is specialised in tick-borne diseases (Lyme disease and possible co-infections), as well as a range of chronic inflammations and immune deficiencies.

The diagnostics for tick-borne diseases is carried out by physicians of the „Medical Partnership“, cooperating with the BCA-clinic, or by doctors sending blood to the BCA-clinic.  The diagnostic tools are based on an extensive anamnesis, in which ailments and the previous medical history are taken into consideration, as well as a physical examination.  In addition, the physician will decide which specialised blood tests should be done and evaluated in the laboratory of the BCA-clinic.

The laboratory diagnostics are crucial to find evidence of Borrelia bacteria and needs to be evaluated and considered.  It is important that this is done by a Lyme specialist who is capable of diagnosing and evaluating all other diseases. Unfortunately, there is still a great dispute about the informational value of blood tests giving evidence of Borrelia in Germany.  Due to this reason, test results can vary from one laboratory to the other.

For you information you can download 2 patient information leaflets here:

Laboratory services and diagnosis of Lyme Disease and possible Co-infections  -  the detection of tick-borne infections makes high demands on laboratory analysis in combination with the diagnostic findings (anamnesis)

Increasing importance of co-infections for Lyme disease patients - with or instead of Lyme disease

Dr. Armin Schwarzbach is the head of laboratory in the BCA-clinic.  He is a laboratory doctor and is specialised in Lyme disease.
 
The laboratory diagnostics is in accordance to the guidelines of the German Association of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology (MiQ12 Lyme-Borreliosis).  The complexity of a Lyme disease infection is not captured completely by these guidelines alone but needs additional medical laboratory diagnostics. Therefore, other internationally recognised methods are applied as well, which have a significance for the patient before and after the therapy (e.g. Borrelia-lymphocyte-transformation test LTT, CD3-/CD57+ cells).

The laboratory is integrated in the BCA-clinic.  It ensures, that therapeutic decisions based on the blood tests, can be applied as soon as possible by the attending physician of the Medical Partnership, especially within the scope of medical therapies (e.g. infusion therapy).

In the following figure you can see a table of vital diagnostic parameters of tick-borne diseases, which can be expanded or limited (in case of findings in the past) in individual cases during an extensive medical consultation:

Laboratory transmittals can also be done by cooperating physicians or your GP.  The BCA developed a special questionnaire/check-list to review clinical findings and symptoms as well as a check-list to check for possible co-infections.  These check-lists are posted together with the blood kits.  You can find more information under Laboratory Transmittals.

Please note: The laboratory analyses are only part of an extensive diagnostic procedure. The experienced physicians of the cooperating Medical Partnership, as well as other physicians and GPs trained by the BCA-clinic, know the broad range of possible disease patterns, which can also appear in the form of the following "unspecific general symptoms":

In contrast to illnesses affecting the organs, the disease patterns of Lyme disease occur in thrusts with changing intensity and appearance.  Many patients also suffer from fever during these thrusts.  Co-infections with other bacteria and viruses appear increasingly often and lead to a complicated course of the disease.

Information for physicians: the BCA-clinic does not only cooperate with the medical partnership but also with other interested physicians.  More information is available at Laboratory Transmittals.