Bloodwork Results/Diagnosing

[Barmstrong1]

Throughout my life, I've had some digestive issues and frequent upset stomachs, bloating, and a food sensitivity but I never knew to what exactly- although I assumed dairy or highly processed food. This summer I went and got some general bloodwork done for a doctor's appointment after experiencing frequent heartburn. To my surprise, they told me the Tissue Transglutaminase IgA result returned as Weakly Positive and that I would need to book a gastroscopy to confirm a diagnosis of celiac disease. After reading a bit on this site, and doing some research online, it seems that there are many different reference ranges/units used, so I was just wondering if I could get any input as to whether it's common to get a weakly positive blood result, but it is not celiacs. 

Tissue Transglutaminase IgA: 9.4 U/mL -----> Reference Range (Units): <7.0 (U/mL) (Weakly Positive)

Ferritin: 19 ug/L ------> Reference Range (Units): 20-300 (ug/L) (Below normal range)

I know some people who have celiac disease and they seem to have more severe symptoms, so when I compare theirs to mine, I don't consider myself to have many except some digestive discomfort and the more recent one of heartburn. My gastroscopy is coming up, but I was just curious if anyone else has had a weakly positive result in their bloodwork and it turned out not to be celiac disease, or if a weak positive is generally a firm indicator of celiac disease. 

I'd appreciate any input or help:)

 

 

[Wheatwacked]

Hopefully it will be an endoscopy of the small intestine and they take several biopsies specifically looking for celiac disease and not just a gastrosopy (stomach).

Many are told to continue eating gluten because their tests just are inconclusive according to the accepted cutoffs.  It seems 10 years to finally get a Celiac Disease diagnosis is not uncommon because of this.  They all think that wheat, barley and rye are good for you.

After they tell you it is not Celiac, it could be Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity and for that the only diagnosis is to eliminate Celiac as a diagnosis and show improvement on a gluten free diet and return of symptoms on a Gluten Challenge.  That does not irreversibly mean not Celiac, just the tests don't show it yet.

[Scott Adams]

A weak positive is a good indicator of celiac disease. 

This article might be helpful. It breaks down each type of test, and what a positive results means in terms of the probability that you might have celiac disease. One test that always needs to be done is the IgA Levels/Deficiency Test (often called "Total IGA") because some people are naturally IGA deficient, and if this is the case, then certain blood tests for celiac disease might be false-negative, and other types of tests need to be done to make an accurate diagnosis. The article includes the "Mayo Clinic Protocol," which is the best overall protocol for results to be ~98% accurate.