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Elisa or Western Blot
Dec 20, 2007
Hello,
I went for HIV testing and i got a call from the doctor saying I had tested positive twice on the Elisa test. Then he said he was going to have the Western Blot test run. The Western Blot test came back negative. I have looked up the reasons for false positive Elisas online and found a huge list of possible causes. The only thing is I don't seem to fit into any of the categories mentionned to cause the false positive results. The other strange thing is my dad went to donate blood and he tested positive on the Elisa twice and negative on the Western Blot. Granted he does have arthritis which is a possible cause of a false positive Elisa. I have several allergies, had a ruptured spleen when I was younger, am a 23 year old male. Also, about 14 months after the exposure I was diagnosed with mono, which lasted for a month or so. I know that swollen lymph nodes are a possible symptom.
Can I rely on the Western Blot since it was done after the six month block?
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Response from Dr. Horwath
The Elisa test is a screening test. It is designed to be very sensitive and, for this reason, sometimes results in a false positive. For this reason, it is combined with the Western blot, which is extremely specific. This means that false positives are rare with the Western blot.
There is no way to know why the Elisa was positive, but you are correct that there are a variety of possible causes for false positve Elisa. In your situation, you should rely on the Western blot result because that is the more specific test.
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