[missybean]

Hello, I'm wondering if I have DH. My primary believes that I do finally but I haven't had a skin biopsy therefor not a firm diagnoses. I have suspected celiac for a couple of months since I got pregnant and many aillments have become worse. I was most gluten free before pregnancy....I thought I had a bad candidia problem and seemed to have a major improvement on that diet. When I became pregnant I started eating more grains and alot of my proir symptoms became worse again.......diarrhea,joint pain, worsening of hives and the list can go on. Anyway I was getting this awful itchy,prickly sensation all over my body for the past couple of months. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to lose my mind. Mostly the rash looks like tiny pin pricks and has kind of a peachy pink hyperpigmentation. Mostly the rash is on my hands is between my finger on the tops of my hands and all over my feet on top. After my doc suspected DH she said go 100% gluten free which I have and I have noticed and massive improvement. No more diarrhea, acne started getting better, skin stopped itching within a week or so and I had this hyperpigmentation on the tops of the knuckles and on my ankles and the top of my foot for almost 2 years and I just noticed the other day, Its gone! Weird. No doctors could ever tell me what it was...it was really dark too......dark brown and i'm really fair skinned. People would always ask what it was. It was imbarrassing. Now I started itching again and i have noticed I have a red rash on my elbow that is really sore looks like little hives, the skin between my finger looks extremly dry and looked like it might crack and bleed and now I have one area where there is a red hive with a scab in the middle of it and it is really sore. I made an appiontment with the dermatologist and I'm going to ask for a biopsy but I wonder do I have to be ingesting gluten to get an accurate test or is the fact that i'm having a blister a sign that I accidently ingusten gluten? I also have large hives all over between my breasts and on my breasts and a have these blood blister looking things everywhere on my breasts too. I have also noticed these blood blister looking things on other places like between my legs on top og my feet where it itches. When I see pics of what DH looks like...mine doesn't look like that. Mine looks for like hives or blood blisters except for the blister I got the other day. Are ther different severities of DH?

[missybean]

missybean, on Oct 5 2009, 10:50 AM, said:

Hello, I'm wondering if I have DH. My primary believes that I do finally but I haven't had a skin biopsy therefor not a firm diagnoses. I have suspected celiac for a couple of months since I got pregnant and many aillments have become worse. I was most gluten free before pregnancy....I thought I had a bad candidia problem and seemed to have a major improvement on that diet. When I became pregnant I started eating more grains and alot of my proir symptoms became worse again.......diarrhea,joint pain, worsening of hives and the list can go on. Anyway I was getting this awful itchy,prickly sensation all over my body for the past couple of months. Sometimes I feel like I'm going to lose my mind. Mostly the rash looks like tiny pin pricks and has kind of a peachy pink hyperpigmentation. Mostly the rash is on my hands is between my finger on the tops of my hands and all over my feet on top. After my doc suspected DH she said go 100% gluten free which I have and I have noticed and massive improvement. No more diarrhea, acne started getting better, skin stopped itching within a week or so and I had this hyperpigmentation on the tops of the knuckles and on my ankles and the top of my foot for almost 2 years and I just noticed the other day, Its gone! Weird. No doctors could ever tell me what it was...it was really dark too......dark brown and i'm really fair skinned. People would always ask what it was. It was imbarrassing. Now I started itching again and i have noticed I have a red rash on my elbow that is really sore looks like little hives, the skin between my finger looks extremly dry and looked like it might crack and bleed and now I have one area where there is a red hive with a scab in the middle of it and it is really sore. I made an appiontment with the dermatologist and I'm going to ask for a biopsy but I wonder do I have to be ingesting gluten to get an accurate test or is the fact that i'm having a blister a sign that I accidently ingusten gluten? I also have large hives all over between my breasts and on my breasts and a have these blood blister looking things everywhere on my breasts too. I have also noticed these blood blister looking things on other places like between my legs on top og my feet where it itches. When I see pics of what DH looks like...mine doesn't look like that. Mine looks for like hives or blood blisters except for the blister I got the other day. Are ther different severities of DH?

[ChemistMama]

Yes, you'll need to be ingesting gluten for a postive biopsy (or a positive blood test), but you'll have to be on gluten for several weeks, which, if you're already gluten-free, could be quite painful and uncomfortable. You could ask for a biopsy, since the gluten does stay in your skin for awhile, but I was gluten-free for 2 months and then had a biopsy and it was negative (taking dapsone proved that it was DH!). You could also try the iodine skin test, there are several threads about how to do that, it was how DH was previously diagnosed before blood tests and dapsone. Good luck!

[ravenwoodglass]

For blood tests and an endoscopic biopsy you have to be on a full gluten diet. DH is a different matter. If you have an active lesion that is all you need. You don't need weeks on a challenge for it. The doctor will need to biopsy the area next to a lesion to look for DH not the lesion itself. If you have no active lesions then you might want to do a short challenge, just long enough for lesions to appear.