Jump to content
This site uses cookies. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. More Info... ×
  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.




  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):



    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):


  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

For Those Who See Gastroenterologists


seraphim

Recommended Posts

seraphim Contributor

I've considered going to a gastroenterologist. They are most knowledgeable about celiac and gluten issues right? I did a stool test with my family doctor to check for parasites and am supposedly clear. But was wondering what sort of things a gastro could help with besides endoscopy, colonoscopy and upper gi tests. Do they also do stool tests? Do they check for small intestinal bacteria overgrowth and what not? Or is it mainly doctors who are not mainstream who do that?


Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



Monnie1229 Newbie

I've considered going to a gastroenterologist. They are most knowledgeable about celiac and gluten issues right? I did a stool test with my family doctor to check for parasites and am supposedly clear. But was wondering what sort of things a gastro could help with besides endoscopy, colonoscopy and upper gi tests. Do they also do stool tests? Do they check for small intestinal bacteria overgrowth and what not? Or is it mainly doctors who are not mainstream who do that?

I am seeing a gastroenterologist and she wanted to do a stool sample but I get around by bus and didn't feel comfortable transporting that way. I started out due to stomach pains when I ate anything. She prescribed me Hyoscyamine .125mg to take before eating and whenever pain comes and Prochlorperazine 10mg for nauseau. This helped and led me to believe that I have an issue with wheat/gluten. I will be doing a food allergy test w/ my allergist next month (July) and follow up with my primary and gastro. I hope this helps some.

kareng Grand Master

I am seeing a gastroenterologist and she wanted to do a stool sample but I get around by bus and didn't feel comfortable transporting that way. I started out due to stomach pains when I ate anything. She prescribed me Hyoscyamine .125mg to take before eating and whenever pain comes and Prochlorperazine 10mg for nauseau. This helped and led me to believe that I have an issue with wheat/gluten. I will be doing a food allergy test w/ my allergist next month (July) and follow up with my primary and gastro. I hope this helps some.

Hopefully you will see this- Celiac is not an allergy so allergy testing won't diagnose it. There are specific blood tests for Celiac disease and any of those docs should be able to order them. You need to be eating gluten to get an accurate test, so don't eliminate it until all testing is completed.

kareng Grand Master

I've considered going to a gastroenterologist. They are most knowledgeable about celiac and gluten issues right? I did a stool test with my family doctor to check for parasites and am supposedly clear. But was wondering what sort of things a gastro could help with besides endoscopy, colonoscopy and upper gi tests. Do they also do stool tests? Do they check for small intestinal bacteria overgrowth and what not? Or is it mainly doctors who are not mainstream who do that?

I'm curious- if you have never been to a GI, how were you diagnosed with Celiac? So few people have a family doc that feels comfortable diagnosing with just blood tests, symptoms and results. It might be helpful for others to hear your doctor's process.

seraphim Contributor

Why do you think I think celiac is an allergy and when did I ever say it? I am gluten intolerant and felt better initially gluten free but a whole host of other things began about two or three months in. I've never been to a gastro but could have undiagnosed celiac. Had a history of "irritable bowel" since I was eight or nine that went away once gluten free. If you think I think celiac is an allergy because I've typed about allergies you'd be wrong. Those are seperate issues that recently came up. Just clarifying now so I don't have to do it later.

seraphim Contributor

I also did enterolab but I know many of you don't accept that but it got rid of those symptoms I was having and my family doctor has celiac listed on their system. Biopsies and blood tests have been known to miss it as well. They can't always get to the area of the bowel most affected. I know I'm not glutening myself just for an "official" diagnosis. I felt too horrible.

kareng Grand Master

Why do you think I think celiac is an allergy and when did I ever say it? I am gluten intolerant and felt better initially gluten free but a whole host of other things began about two or three months in. I've never been to a gastro but could have undiagnosed celiac. Had a history of "irritable bowel" since I was eight or nine that went away once gluten free. If you think I think celiac is an allergy because I've typed about allergies you'd be wrong. Those are seperate issues that recently came up. Just clarifying now so I don't have to do it later.

I wasn't answering you - I quoted the new person, Monnie. She seemed to need a little info.


Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):



Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):



seraphim Contributor

Sorry on my kindle I didn't even notice that. I thought you addressed it because of a couple threads I have regarding histamine etc.

seraphim Contributor

I am seeing a gastroenterologist and she wanted to do a stool sample but I get around by bus and didn't feel comfortable transporting that way. I started out due to stomach pains when I ate anything. She prescribed me Hyoscyamine .125mg to take before eating and whenever pain comes and Prochlorperazine 10mg for nauseau. This helped and led me to believe that I have an issue with wheat/gluten. I will be doing a food allergy test w/ my allergist next month (July) and follow up with my primary and gastro. I hope this helps some.

Do yourself a favor and get an endoscopy...blood test or even enterolab. THEN go gluten free and see how you feel. I was too chicken to endoscopy at the time. I regret that a year later. Did the diet help? Yes...but...it's nice to have a solid view of what you're dealing with...seriously. The tests could miss it but they might not. If it shows up negative you can always trial the diet anyhow and see if you feel better. 

Monnie1229 Newbie

Hopefully you will see this- Celiac is not an allergy so allergy testing won't diagnose it. There are specific blood tests for Celiac disease and any of those docs should be able to order them. You need to be eating gluten to get an accurate test, so don't eliminate it until all testing is completed.

I know that celiac is not an allergy, but I have seasonal allergies for ALL seasons (no off season for me) So my 1st thought was to do allergy testing. I immediately stopped eating wheat and felt better then started looking up sites for Gluten Free recipes and came across this site. I have to follow up with my Gastro Dr in Sept. cause I had the appt already and when I tried to get an earlier appt they didn't have any. I have seen that you have to be eating wheat for the testing and am not looking forward to going back to feeling that way.

Monnie1229 Newbie

Do yourself a favor and get an endoscopy...blood test or even enterolab. THEN go gluten free and see how you feel. I was too chicken to endoscopy at the time. I regret that a year later. Did the diet help? Yes...but...it's nice to have a solid view of what you're dealing with...seriously. The tests could miss it but they might not. If it shows up negative you can always trial the diet anyhow and see if you feel better. 

I will make sure to ask my Gastro Dr about those tests. I also want to know exactly what is wrong, but do not look forward to feeling bad again because I have to eat wheat.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Celiac.com:
    Donate

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A17):
    Celiac.com Sponsor (A17):





    Celiac.com Sponsors (A17-M):




  • Recent Activity

    1. - MI-Hoosier replied to MI-Hoosier's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      4

      Test uncertainty

    2. - Heather Hill replied to Heather Hill's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      3

      Does this definitely suggest Coeliac Disease?

    3. - trents replied to MI-Hoosier's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      4

      Test uncertainty

    4. - MI-Hoosier replied to MI-Hoosier's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      4

      Test uncertainty

    5. - trents replied to MI-Hoosier's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      4

      Test uncertainty


  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):



  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      128,254
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748

    brigette
    Newest Member
    brigette
    Joined

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):


  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.1k
    • Total Posts
      70.8k

  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):





  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):



  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • MI-Hoosier
      Thanks again. My mom was diagnosed over 50 years ago with celiac so grew up watching her deal with the challenges of food. I have been tested a few times prior due to this but these results have me a bit stunned. I have a liver disease that has advanced rapidly with no symptoms and an allergy that could be a contributing factor that had no symptoms. I guess I’ll call it lucky my Dr ordered a rescreen of a liver ultrasound from 5 years ago that triggered this or I would likely have tripped into cirrhosis. It’s all pretty jarring.
    • Heather Hill
      Many thanks for your responses, much appreciated.  The tests did include tTg IgA and all the other markers mentioned.  I also had sufficient total IgA so if I'm reading the Mayo clinic thing correctly, I didn't really need the anti-deaminated gliadin marker? So, if I am reading the information correctly do I conclude that as all the other markers including tTg IgA and DGP IgG and tTg IgG and EMA IgA are all negative, then the positive result for the immune response to gliadin, on it's own, is more likely to suggest some other problem in the gut rather than Coeliac disease? Until I have a view from the medics (NHS UK) then I think I will concentrate on trying to lower chronic inflammation and mend leaky gut, using L glutamine and maybe collagen powder. Thank you for your help so far.  I will get back in touch once I have a response, which sadly can take quite a long time.   Kindest Heather Hill 
    • trents
      To put this in perspective, most recent pretest "gluten challenge" guidelines for those having already been eating reduced gluten or gluten free for a significant time period is the daily consumption of 10g of gluten (about the amount in 4-6 slices of wheat bread) for a minimum of two weeks leading up to the day of testing (antibody or biopsy). And I would certainly give it more than two weeks to ensure a valid test experience. Short answer: If it were me, yes, I would assume I have celiac disease and launch full bore into gluten-free eating. I think the tTG-IGA is reliable enough and your score is solid enough to make that a reasonable conclusion. Here is an article to help you get off to a good start. It's easy to achieve a reduced gluten free state but much more difficult to achieve consistency in truly gluten-free eating. Gluten is hidden in so many ways and found in so many food products where you would never expect to find it. For example, soy sauce and canned tomato soup (most canned soups, actually), pills, medications, health supplements. It can be disguised in terminology. And then there is the whole issue of cross contamination where foods that are naturally gluten free become contaminated with gluten incidentally in agricultural activities and manufacturing processes: Eating out at restaurants is a mine field for those with celiac disease because you don't know how food is handled back in the kitchen. Gluten free noodles boiled in the same water that was used for wheat noodles, eggs cooked on the same griddle that French toast was, etc.  
    • MI-Hoosier
      Thank you for the response and article. I was placed on the Mediterranean diet and been on that now for about 3 weeks. While not gluten free I am eating very little bread or anything with gluten ie a slice of whole wheat bread every couple days so assume that would cause issues now with a biopsy.  With the condition my liver is in I am unsure moving back to higher bread consumption is ideal.  In this scenario would my test results be enough to assume positive Celiac and just move forward gluten free?
    • trents
      Welcome to the forum, @MI-Hoosier! You are operating on a misconception about your "mixed" test results. You only had two celiac disease diagnostic tests run out of six that could have been ordered if your doctor had opted for a complete celiac panel. It is perfectly normal to not test positive for all possible celiac disease diagnostic tests. That is why there is more than one test option. It is the same way with other diagnostic testing procedures for many or most other diseases. Generally, when diagnosing a condition, a number of different tests are run and a diagnosis is arrived at by looking at the total body of evidence. The tTG-IGA test is the centerpiece of celiac disease blood antibody testing and the one most commonly ordered by doctors. You were strongly positive for that test. It was not an unequivocal result, IMO.  Having said that, it is standard procedure to confirm a positive celiac disease blood antibody test result with an endoscopy/biopsy which is still considered the gold standard of celiac disease diagnosis. Had your tTG-IGA been 150 or greater, your doctor many have opted out of the endoscopy/biopsy. The absence of GI distress in the celiac disease population is very common. We call them "silent celiacs". That can change as damage to the lining of the small bowel worsens. Elevated liver enzymes/liver stress is very common in the celiac population. About 18% of celiacs experience it. I was one of them. Persistently elevated liver enzymes over a period of years in the absence of other typical causes such as hepatitis and alcohol abuse was what eventually led to my celiac disease diagnosis. But it took thirteen years to get that figured out. Within three months of going gluten free my liver enzymes were back into normal range. Thank goodness, there is more awareness these days about the many long fingers of celiac disease that are not found in the classic category of GI distress. Today, there have been over 200 symptoms/medical conditions identified as connected to celiac disease. It is critical that you not begin a gluten free diet until your endoscopy/biopsy of the small bowel is over. Doing so before that procedure will invalidate it because it will allow healing of the small bowel lining to begin. Here is a link to an article covering celiac disease blood antibody testing:  
×
×
  • Create New...