1 Paper: Fluorescent Bead-Based Multiplex Assay (For Detection of Bb Antibodies)

I was originally going to write on a paper on Borrelia burgdorferi and lymphadenopathy that has been making the rounds, but the following link was sent to me and I think it deserves more immediate attention:

http://ahdc.vet.cornell.edu/docs/Scopes_2011_02.pdf

Following this link, on page 6 of the document is an interview with Dr. Bettina Wagner, Assistant Professor of Equine Health at Cornell University, on the use of a Lyme disease blood test for dogs which is more accurate than earlier tests.

The test uses a technology known as bead-based multiplex technology, a technology that has been in use for the past decade - but this is the first veterinary diagnostic lab which is using it for Lyme disease.

Key excerpts from the article:

The improved test for Lyme disease in horses and dogs developed by Wagner and her colleagues takes less time, requires smaller samples, and answers more questions about the disease. In the past, diagnosticians had to run several tests to confirm Lyme disease. The multiplex procedure can detect many kinds of antibodies to several different antigens of B. burgdorferi using a single test on a single sample, eliminating the need for separate tests.

[...] Different kinds of antibodies can be found in the body at different stages of infection. The new test can distinguish and measure these differences, giving more information about the timing of the disease. "We can now not only distinguish between infection and vaccination, but also between early and chronic infection stages,” Wagner noted. “That was not possible before. You were able to say whether an animal was infected, but not when it was infected, or how far the infection had developed.”

The test and information it provides can help veterinarians make advanced decisions about treatment. After the long treatment period ends, veterinarians usually conduct follow-up testing to see if it was successful.

I decided I wanted to learn more about Dr. Wagner and if she did any research - as well as to learn more about bead-based multiplex assays.

I also had one question: Why isn't this test available for people, since many have complained that Lyme disease serological tests are not that accurate?

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0 Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit

So, I mentioned this in my first post here, and think it was important enough that I wanted to repost the contents of this link on Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit.

I recommend that whenever you are reading an editorial piece, listen to an argument between pundits on TV, listen to CSPAN (what? 300 channels and nothing else on?), or are reading a somewhat heated thread on a support group or discussion board that you keep this Kit in mind...

Based on the book "The Demon Haunted World: Science as a candle in the dark" published by Headline 1996.

 

The following are suggested as tools for testing arguments and detecting fallacious or fraudulent arguments:

• Wherever possible there must be independent confirmation of the facts
• Encourage substantive debate on the evidence by knowledgeable proponents of all points of view.
• Arguments from authority carry little weight (in science there are no "authorities").
• Spin more than one hypothesis - don't simply run with the first idea that caught your fancy.
• Try not to get overly attached to a hypothesis just because it's yours.
• Quantify, wherever possible.
• If there is a chain of argument every link in the chain must work.
• "Occam's razor" - if there are two hypothesis that explain the data equally well choose the simpler.
• Ask whether the hypothesis can, at least in principle, be falsified (shown to be false by some unambiguous test). In other words, is it testable? Can others duplicate the experiment and get the same result?

Additional issues are

• Conduct control experiments - especially "double blind" experiments where the person taking measurements is not aware of the test and control subjects.
• Check for confounding factors - separate the variables.

Common fallacies of logic and rhetoric

• Ad hominem - attacking the arguer and not the argument.
• Argument from "authority".
• Argument from adverse consequences (putting pressure on the decision maker by pointing out dire consequences of an "unfavourable" decision).
• Appeal to ignorance (absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).
• Special pleading (typically referring to god's will).
• Begging the question (assuming an answer in the way the question is phrased).
• Observational selection (counting the hits and forgetting the misses).
• Statistics of small numbers (such as drawing conclusions from inadequate sample sizes).
• Misunderstanding the nature of statistics (President Eisenhower expressing astonishment and alarm on discovering that fully half of all Americans have below average intelligence!)
• Inconsistency (e.g. military expenditures based on worst case scenarios but scientific projections on environmental dangers thriftily ignored because they are not "proved").
• Non sequitur - "it does not follow" - the logic falls down.
• Post hoc, ergo propter hoc - "it happened after so it was caused by" - confusion of cause and effect.
• Meaningless question ("what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?).
• Excluded middle - considering only the two extremes in a range of possibilities (making the "other side" look worse than it really is).
• Short-term v. long-term - a subset of excluded middle ("why pursue fundamental science when we have so huge a budget deficit?").
• Slippery slope - a subset of excluded middle - unwarranted extrapolation of the effects (give an inch and they will take a mile).
• Confusion of correlation and causation.
• Straw man - caricaturing (or stereotyping) a position to make it easier to attack..
• Suppressed evidence or half-truths.
• Weasel words - for example, use of euphemisms for war such as "police action" to get around limitations on Presidential powers. "An important art of politicians is to find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the public"

And, that's it! That's your kit!

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