Hep C Discussion Forum

thanks tig, it is a great relief to have that behind me now

hmmmmm i meant cheddy   

Yahoo, 5!.  Feels great, doesn't it?!

thankyou MB. these daa's are so good

i was waiting by the phone today . 

saved by ZERO ..... woohoo. still UND.

hi C,

all i gotta do is think of what you have to go thru to get your labs and appointments and i get some perspective , my lab is a few blocks away, same with my fam. doctor.

still it's traumatic when we've spent so much time and years going to doctors so often, and labs so often.

anyway , it's done now till GB time in oct.

let's see, the CK journey of my honey.

he had high ana and rnp and demanding further testing to find out if he's got something serious. turns out no but it is often very painful.

they did not chk his heart but has had that looked at before this.

his blood pressure is normal now after having some drama with that, we think it was high due to flomax , and he quit that and the bp pills and is doing fine.

the ck was tested and it was high but only slightly, he wanted to know more so had planned another test; before that test he was having fun with tennis and also some heavy lifting. 

the next test he didn't over do it and it was normal again.

he just has awful pain in his arms and wrists and hands and hips.  His whole life he was rough on his body with sports so from my perspective this is kinda normal for old sports injuries... Still he thinks it was the harvoni and i'm not sure it is due to his lifetime of sports and car accident injuries.

anyway.... he takes a fourth of a vicoprophen now and then along with half a tylenol other times. the doc offered him steroids but i said i'd have to move out cos i've seen him on steroids and it's not fun....agitated and irritated is what he is when he took them.

it's sad that we have to succumb to various painful maladies as our bodies age

he is classified as having muskuloskelatal disease.... and that covers a wide range of aches and pains.

he will be monitored for that due to the pulmonary complications possible...just one more thing

thankyou missusB and tig,

this was a reminder of how that doctor tried to give me another type of daa when i wanted harvoni due to other ppl's tx experiences. 

but in the same way i guess it made it easier to have the right one when the time came cos i reallllllllly wanted it , wanted the harvoni and wanted the Quant, so i went ahead easier with both of them.

thank you for the support friends

i love the disco ball

Yay!!! Where theres a will theres a way.  

thankyou missusB

yep, one day at a time.  and indeed i have been doing a very good job of this

i hope to go to bed early tonite and head on over to my family doc around 8am., her patient list fills up fast and it's a walk in which i like.

from there i'll go upstairs and get my labs with the quant. 

i will know better next time to just insist to the liver docs what i want.

hi C,

the GB goes out in mid Oct . since nobody at the liver clinic sent labs i decided to ask way in advance of Oct.

I will see the surgeon a cpl weeks before the surgery, for more labs , but no ultra sounds or upper gi's [i'm thankful for that], he's convinced AND so am i. [ the surgeon is a completely different medical group...yay].

i should have just said right away that i only wanted the quant, but i felt i shouldn't. wtf?! it's my body and i'm paying them .... so this is my karma for not standing up for myself right away.

now i have to wait till next monday to see what Doc Liver has to say.

OR i can drag my tired butt to my fam doc and just get a request from her... i'll see how i feel on wed or thurs  or if i want to wait till next week. i'm betting on next week, either way i'll get the quant not the qual  no matter who i get it from.

hubby's creatine kinase was high  at 1180, and now it's normal ,  it seems that aggressive exercise makes it rise, and he was playing tennis for a few days.... he felt happy for a few days then crappy for many days after 

hahahaha, he's on vacation. it's too hot to go anywhere anyway. maybe next week

The quantitative test is useful for monitoring the amount of HCV in your blood over time or measuring your response to treatment intended to reduce your viral load. Once the measurement of your viral load drops to 615 IU/L or less, the amount of the virus is considered undetectable.

At this point, the qualitative test can confirm whether the virus is actually no longer in your body or if only a small amount is still present.

well allrighty then, i guess this is what i'm going with on tuesday if they just say no to quant.... and i either have it or i don't. ANd if the quant says no i presume the gual will agree

at least this is all going on before the gallbladder steps up to the plate.

OR.....i'll wait and see my fam. dr. , the more i read the more i just want to go straight to the quant to avoid having to test twice.

5,

Good plan, either way (any way).

There is no harm/no foul to have a qual. in your file, as (by hook or by crook) you can figure out a way to get yourself the quant. as well.

If he remains adamant he will only provide you a qual., despite your requests, then you always have the GP to assist you in getting a quant. requisition.

Both you and your husband went to the same clinic? (I think?), just dif. docs? (maybe not, I can't recall now), so ... what testing did they do for your hubby post-treatment (qaul/quant-wise)? C.

I haven’t read any recommendations or suggestions by the medical community to use the qualitative testing over quantitative as a way to confirm SVR. In the (unlikely) event a test comes back positive (following an established SVR), they would have to turn around and run the quantitative test to determine if a viral load exists. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

thanks Tig, 

here is my answer :

The Quantative will check if there is any viral load in your blood,  the  Qualitative will only tell us if you are positive or negative.  

-------------------

I went ahead and emailed them asking for the quant, saying i want to know if it's in my blood... we'll see what they say; if they say no i will go to my family doc

if it comes back pos willl i have to do the quant to see if it's under the legal limit? hahaha

BUt, yea, it has to be UND. still

• If a patient has a quantitative test that shows no detectable virus, but has a positive result with the qualitative test, it means there is a very low level of virus that can be detected only with the qualitative test.
• The qualitative test will become negative during hepatitis C treatment and indicates a good response.
• A negative qualitative test 10-12 weeks after finishing hepatitis C treatment means you are cured.

5, 

There is tons available out there to read about "antibody" testing, then about the "qualitative" type testings that they can do (TMA and such) following a positive antibody test result, and then about the "quantitative" RNA PCR most of us have had here through treatment. Unfortunately, there is still really quite "old" articles and info about just "how sensitive", or how much better one test is over another, and how low the tests can measure. Over the years (and really not all that long ago), they were only able to actual count down to about in the 600's! - you can still find articles that speak of this 600-ish being the lowest level of detection! - other articles speak of a PCR-testing-low of 20. I found an article once that spoke of a testing-low of 8. There is some lab equipment that expresses the lowest level of detection at 12. We, of course (around here) have had the most experience with and exposure to the RNA PCR testing where the lowest "number" might say <15 (less than 15).  There is no one good single source (an all-encompassing article/study) where one can go to, to find the whole of the most current info to compare all forms of viral detection testing. 

Bottom line that most of us go by is the "und" results we get on our "quantitative RNA PCR" (which, number-wise would mean they cannot detect any virus in us, if they DID detect virus in us with this test, it would say "detected <15IU". So all we can say, is that this test can only count a low of 15 (or can count an unknown quantity of virus that is below 15). 

The test that your doc is wanting to use, the one he seems to prefer, the one which he perhaps is suggesting is "better and/or MORE sensitive", I have no idea if this is true or not, you could ask him to clarify (exactly) what test (which test) he is using - the name of it, just to clarify which test it is, and then you can suss it further by google, and/or by speaking with the lab. Ask your doc how the results are expressed - simply as "detected or undetected" or is the test going to provide you "a number", a viral load "count" ("a number" of viral particles counted)? - you can ask him if it is a TMA.

I asked my doc, real early on in my drug trial, what kind of VL testing they do, if they ever would be using the TMA on me, and his face went all funny and he said "no", like as in "of course not", I just dropped it, and saw all my testing evermore through trial and today was always with RNA PCR's. 

Here below is a very short portion/excerpt that kinda differentiates "qual." and "quant." testing ...

... The HCV RNA PCR test is conducted through a process called polymerase chain reaction (PCR). There are two approaches to this process: qualitative and quantitative ...

Qualitative

This test is often used to make a hepatitis C diagnosis. It confirms whether you have the virus in your body without providing a specific number.

The qualitative test is often the second test that your doctor will use to confirm whether HCV is present in your blood. It often follows the hepatitis C antibody test.

The antibody test lets you know whether your body is making antibodies to fight off an HCV infection. If your doctor gets a positive result from the antibody test, they will use HCV RNA PCR testing to confirm and measure the amount of HCV in your blood.

Your doctor may also recommend a similar qualitative test known as a transcription-mediated amplification (TMA) test. Some researchTrusted Source suggests that it's a much more sensitive detection test for HCV. Your doctor may not think that it's necessary for you if the PCR test gives sufficient results.