Western Blot Test Lab Report

When your blood is tested for HIV, the lab first performs what is known as an EIA or ELISA (enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay). A negative ELISA means that no antibodies were found in the blood and that the person is HIV-negative. A positive result is confirmed with a second ELISA. If the second ELISA is positive, a Western Blot must be done to ensure that the antibodies detected in the ELISA test are really HIV antibodies. The Western Blot test can come back positive, negative, or inconclusive. After you had a seemingly positive ELISA, s/he used the Western Blot to dig a little deeper and get a more reliable answer. The negative result from the Western Blot is definitive.

About 0.2 percent of ELISA tests give positive results that are then proven false by the Western Blot test. An ELISA test can be falsely positive for several reasons, including a patient's autoimmune disease, multiple pregnancies, blood transfusions, liver diseases, parental substance abuse, hemodialysis, or vaccinations for Hepatitis B, rabies, or influenza. Any of these conditions can stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies that cross-react with HIV antigens and produce a false positive.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), ELISA and the Western Blot test …show more content…
A negative ELISA means that no antibodies were found in the blood and that the person is HIV-negative. A positive result is confirmed with a second ELISA. If the second ELISA is positive, a Western Blot must be done to ensure that the antibodies detected in the ELISA test are really HIV antibodies. The Western Blot test can come back positive, negative, or inconclusive. After you had a seemingly positive ELISA, s/he used the Western Blot to dig a little deeper and get a more reliable answer. The negative result from the Western Blot is