This test requires a blood draw, so please ensure you can refer to a phlebotomist in the clients area before you order this test.
(Nordic Laboratories accept no cost or claims related to any phlebotomy services in the event of sample rejection or failure for any reason. By ordering this, or any test, requiring phlebotomy services, you accept any inherent risk and any associated costs.)
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.
The rickettsiae are a diverse collection of obligately intracellular Gram-negative bacteria found in ticks, lice, fleas, mites, chiggers, and mammals.
Rickettsia species cause Rocky Mountain spotted fever, rickettsialpox, other spotted fevers, epidemic typhus, and murine typhus. Orientia (formerly Rickettsia) tsutsugamushi causes scrub typhus. Patients present with febrile exanthems and visceral involvement; symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, encephalitis, hypotension, acute renal failure, and respiratory distress.
Rickettsia and Orientia species are transmitted by the bite of infected ticks or mites or by the feces of infected lice or fleas. From the portal of entry in the skin, rickettsiae spread via the bloodstream to infect the endothelium and sometimes the vascular smooth muscle cells. Rickettsia species enter their target cells, multiply by binary fission in the cytosol, and damage heavily parasitized cells directly.