Medical records and your personal health record (PHR) are not the same thing. Medical records contain information about your health compiled and maintained by each of your healthcare providers. A PHR is information about your health compiled and maintained by you. The difference is in how you use your PHR to improve the quality of your healthcare.
Laboratory blood tests are helpful if used correctly and performed with validated methods. Laboratory tests are not recommended for patients who do not have symptoms typical of Lyme disease. Just as it is important to correctly diagnose Lyme disease when a patient has it, it is important to avoid misdiagnosis and treatment of Lyme disease when the true cause of the illness is something else.
Lyme disease tests are used to determine if a person with characteristic signs and symptoms has been infected by the bacteria Borrelia burgdorferi.The tests detect antibodies produced by the immune system in response to the infection.f the IgM and western blot are negative but the IgG is positive, then either the person has recovered from Lyme disease or this is due to cross reactive antibodies and the symptoms are due to another cause. The following table summarizes results that may be seen with Lyme disease antibody tests.