Questions on culture results.

[sam57]

When I had my herpes culture done it said that the range was "N/A" and that the results were a micro report. I messaged my gynocologost asking her what this meant and she said that "it says that the virus was isolated that means it's a positive result". If anyone could further elaborate on this it would be much appreciated. I do not know if I have hsv 1 or 2. I asked her I could get the blood work done for it and she said she wasn't sure if my insurance would cover it but to let her know. I am not sure what to do.

[MMissouri]

There are two departments in the lab that test for herpes. One is serology (serum from blood work) which provides ranges of antibodies in your serum. The other is microbiology which works up cultures. (Think swabs, plates, and slides). Anyway. Your test results indicate they did not do a blood work up and have no ranges to report (N/A meaning not applicable) and they did a culture work up instead (the microbiology department isolated the virus). If a culture workup is positive, you can be sure you have herpes. It's the negatives (not enough of the virus collected, or not swabbed properly) that are questioned.

 

If you want the type of the strain you have, then I would follow up with the blood testing.