Newly Diagnosed

[guitarplayer4God]

I recently tested positive on my blood test for celiac disease. I have an appointment with a new gastro Dr in two weeks. I'm sure they will want to scope me but I don't want to suffer for several more weeks. Does anyone have an opinion?

Can anyone please explain the following blood tests?

Endo, IgA Screen

Endo, IgA Titer

Tissue Transglutaminase Ab, IgA

How reliable are the blood test for the diagnoses?

Thank you!

Beth

[AndreaB]

Beth,

Welcome to the forum!

You will find a lot of wonderful people here with a lot of information.

I don't know specifically about the blood tests. Seems they are more accurate than the biopsy. If you already have been tested and found to have celiac than that would mean that the IgA in your blood is elevated. I haven't had any done. We went through enterolab as a family because of my infant son's reaction to gluten. We all have a reaction to gluten (except my husband) that I doubt would have been caught be the blood test as we don't show any classic symptoms. From what I've read from others posts the biopsy can be hit and miss depending on what the condition of your intestines are where they take the samples from.

[Swingin' Celiac]

I recently tested positive on my blood test for celiac disease. I have an appointment with a new gastro Dr in two weeks. I'm sure they will want to scope me but I don't want to suffer for several more weeks. Does anyone have an opinion?

Can anyone please explain the following blood tests?

Endo, IgA Screen

Endo, IgA Titer

Tissue Transglutaminase Ab, IgA

How reliable are the blood test for the diagnoses?

Thank you!

Beth

Hey Beth, welcome to the club . To answer your questions the blood tests you listed are all a part of what the docs like to call the celiac blood panel. The Endomysial Ab IgA screen just tells you if your blood is positive or negative for this antibody, and I believe the titer tells the doctors something about the actual concentration of it. Tissue Transglutaminase Ab, IgA is another antibody test; negative is <5U/ML, inconclusive is 5-8U/ML, and positive is >8U/ML. In basic terms they just show if your body's having an autoimmune reaction from gluten. These antibodies pop up in your blood in higher concentrations when you are. From my understanding, it's impossible to get a false positive in a celiac panel (unless they test someone elses blood ) so you're not allowed to go into denial. However, it is possible to have celiac and test negative. As far as the biopsy goes, your doctor probably wants to do it in order to have something to compare your improvements to. They can't really tell if you're actually healing without a biopsy (not even a blood test can help you there). My advice would be to stick it out, let them take a few pictures and send a lovely piece of intestinal tissue to the pathologist to see how bad it is to begin with so that they can tell if you're making any headway later on. Don't worry about the endoscopy, I've had two done and I've observed a heck of a lot more when I shadowed G.I. docs (did I mention I'm premed?). It's really nothing to worry about, and the possible complications are really rare (unless you have some kind of bleeding disorder or something). The actual test is only like 5 to 10 minutes, but the sedation makes it seem longer. Just look forward to all the fun pictures of your insides that you'll get to keep and share with your friends . Best of luck. Oh and DO NOT start a gluten-free diet before the endoscopy as it will mess with your results. Hope that helps!