How Does The Saliva Test Work?

[imagine22]

Hi,

Ive seen on the board mention of a saliva test done by Diagnos-Techs, Inc. and they're located in Kent, Washington state ($27 US phone number 425 -251 -0596).

Can anyone tell me whether you need to be eating gluten for it to pick up celiac- like the blood tests? I want to test my toddler (I have celiac) but not with an intrusive blood test or endoscopy as she doesnt have any serious symptoms as yet (occaisional dioreah), and she is on a nearly gluten free diet as i only cook gluten free (but she has some gluten containing foods when she visits grandma etc) so i dont think she would have enough gluten to be worth the blood test.

thanks

[Guest Kathy Ann]

My first diagnosis was by saliva test. There are many people who have high respect for those tests, but there are also many who don't think they mean much. Diagnos Tech believes that they are 90-100% accurate when the results are "positive'. I went on and did the Enterolab stool test after that and it DID confirm the original saliva results. So it proved totally valid in my case. According to Diagnos Tech, I believe you can be off gluten for a month or so and still get accurate results. The only exception would be if you have an insufficient Total Secretory IgA score. You should probably check that on the test as well so you will know if that's a problem. If it were me, I would maybe do the saliva test and then the Enterolab test. They work well to confirm each other and are both non-invasive and painless.

By the way, I would also test for eggs and soy and dairy while you are at it. You won't regret knowing.