[Beth in NC]

I went with my 18 year old to the doc a couple days ago because he has been totally exhausted for the last 3 weeks, since coming back from 2 months in Alaska. It was time for jet lag to be over and he was needing tons of sleep still and still not feeling rested.

He had NO other symptoms till, being the mom I am who used to be a nurse, I questioned him about his stool. He loved that! Seems while in Alaska it was "looser than normal" but not D. He did describe what I would consider to be ...maybe mucous? And he said it was defintely green. The doc was/is thinking he might have giardia, since he did some hiking/camping this summer and I guess that is still a possibility. But I asked for the Celiac panel to be done while they were doing a bunch of other tests.

Everything else has been normal...till today when they called about the Celiac panel. Here is what she told me...but the gal wasn't familiar with the different things, so I may not have them totally accurate in description. Normal ranges are in ( ).

IGA - 15 (0-3)

IGG - 28 (0-5)

IGA quantitative 108 (61-348)

IGA endomy....something.or.other negative


Obviously something is going on, but I'm not sure what each of these mean. And she said nothing about Tissue Trans.... that is definitive for Celiac. What would it mean that only those first two are elevated and not the last two?

[psawyer]

I can't comment on the fourth test.

The first two are celiac-related. They are not as sensitive as the tTG-IgA.

The third one is needed to validate the result of the first two. They can show false negatives if the Total Serum IgA is abnormally low. Since they measure levels of specific antibodies, it is necessary to ensure that the body is producing antibodies at all.

The last test is, I believe, anti-endomysial antibody test (EMA-IgA). This test is very specific for Celiac Disease but it is not as sensitive as the others.

[Beth in NC]

I just called the gal back. I had my own results to look at so I specifically asked her if it was Antigliadin or Transglutaminase. Both the ones that were elevated were Transglutaminase. So basically, that is a definite postive for Celiac, isn't it?

[psawyer]

Yes, it is positive for celiac disease.