What is an O-band?

[from2344]

Hi, I was recently diagnosed with ms and just joined this forum yesterday.
I have read several posts about O-bands and was just wondering what this means.

[misslux]

It stands for oligoclonal bands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligoclonal_band

I had 14 bands when I had my lumbar puncture. I still don't 100% understand it though!

[Kimba22]

O-bands stands for oligoclonal bands that are found in the spinal fluid.

Here's a link:
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/abo...uid/index.aspx

Hope that helps!

[MSer102]

Oligoclonal bands also occur in blood, not just in spinal fluid.

Comparing the number of O bands in spinal fluid to the number of bands in blood helps to pinpoint where the abnormality is coming from. If there are more O bands in spinal fluid than there are in blood it means that the abnormality is operating primarily in the central nervous system. In MS the diagnosis relies on the majority of O bands being in spinal fluid.

If there are more O bands in blood or as many O bands in blood as there are in spinal fluid it means that the abnormality started somewhere else in the body and is operating primarily somewhere else in the body and the O bands have gotten secondarily into the spinal fluid. As many O bands in blood as there are in spinal fluid is not an indication of MS. You can read more about that in the medical literature.

[MizMeesha]

Here is my fave link regarding O bands - it has a good explanation of the process to read the banding and great pictures of the banding difference between CSF and Serum. All the topics are in pull down menu style.

http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/faciliti...-patterns.aspx

M

[from2344]

Thank-you for your responses I appreciate it

[Fed Up]

Oligoclonal bands also occur in blood, not just in spinal fluid.

Comparing the number of O bands in spinal fluid to the number of bands in blood helps to pinpoint where the abnormality is coming from. If there are more O bands in spinal fluid than there are in blood it means that the abnormality is operating primarily in the central nervous system. In MS the diagnosis relies on the majority of O bands being in spinal fluid.

If there are more O bands in blood or as many O bands in blood as there are in spinal fluid it means that the abnormality started somewhere else in the body and is operating primarily somewhere else in the body and the O bands have gotten secondarily into the spinal fluid. As many O bands in blood as there are in spinal fluid is not an indication of MS. You can read more about that in the medical literature.

THANK YOU MS102...YOU JUST ANSWERED A QUESTION I ASKED IN A THANK YOU THREAD ELSEWHERE!

Thank YOU for educating me, even more. I like your concise and easy to understand answers! You rock and some others here with all this info. fed