Exactly What Tests Do I Need?

[Guest ajlauer]

I'm going to the doctor on Monday and want to get the tests done for celiac disease. *exactly* what do I ask for (in abbreviations and long names, if you know both)? I also want to get tested for food allergies. The nurse/receptionist (not exactly sure of her title) had no idea there was a blood test for allergies - so I doubt they know anything about celiac's. One of the disadvantages to living in a small town I suppose.

This has probably been asked and answered a dozen times here, but for the life of me, I just couldn't find it!! Thank You.

[gf4life]

The food allergies test is called RAST, and they can check for many different foods. Usually they specify the top 8-10 allergen foods on the test order form.

The celiac tests you need are:

o Anti-Gliadin (AGA) IgA

o Anti-Gliadin (AGA) IgG

o Anti-Endomysial (EMA) IgA

o Anti-Tissue Transglutaminase (tTG)

o Total Serum IgA

Preferrably from a reliable lab like Prometheus. My insurance won't pay for them, so I had to do our blood tests through Quest Diagnostics. They are just not specialised enough to accurately run the celiac disease tests. Here is the website info from Prometheus.

Open Original Shared Link

God bless,

Mariann

[KaitiUSA]

Yep those are the tests you need done and I second Prometheus. They are an experienced lab when it comes to celiac. Also, they offer a gene test but my insurance didn't cover that part but it was a good thing for me to get done

[gf4life]

The way Prometheus works is that they run the bloodtests, and automatically run the gene test if the blood tests are negative. At least that is what their paperwork said when I filled it out for my kids. Then of course the insurance refused to pay, so the tests were actually run by Quest for a second time! The reason the pedi GI ordered the Prometheus tests was they are the only lab he trusts to run celiac disease testing! He actually has worked closely with them in getting their celiac disease panel put together when he was in San Diego. Him and some of his collegues down there are the reason that they ALWAYS include the total serum IgA on their tests. Before they only included it if the doctor thought it was necessary. This pedi GI thinks a person being tested for celiac disease needs to have the total IgA count done EVERY TIME, not just when the doctor thinks it might be a good idea!

I think there is a spot on the Prometheus form where you can request to have the gene test run even if the blood is positive also.

God bless,

Mariann