I'm Trying To Interpret My Boyfriend's Test Results, But I'm Not Sure If The Country I'm In Uses The Same Names For Tests. Please Help?

[BelleVie]

Hello again everyone. 

 

Since I met my boyfriend, he has had chronic dry skin/eczema (especially around his mouth and on his elbows and knees,) a rash on one of his knees that looks just like DH (he has had the rash forever, it comes and goes in cycles but never completely heals, but it only itches a little bit), really bad gas all the time, a bloated mid-section, and abnormal BMs. I don't think he realized that any of this was abnormal until we met, but now he's been very open to information concerning digestive issues/celiac/gluten. He also has a history of acid reflux and dental enamel defects. 

 

He had asthma as a child, extreme skinniness (until he was college age), and currently has tiredness, a geographic tongue, and a history of his body rejecting the Hep. B vaccine. 

 

I convinced him to have a celiac panel done, but I'm having trouble understanding it, because it uses terminology and test names that I'm unfamiliar with. 

 

Here is the panel we got back from the doctor:

 

 

Intrinsic factor Ab - negative

Parietal cell Ab - negative 

Tissue transglutaminase Ab - negative

ASCA - positive

Gliadin Ab - positive  

 

Is Gliadin Ab the old test used? I did read that the ASCA is normally a marker for Crohn's disease, but that it CAN signify celiac.

 

We tried to have his rash biopsied at an English speaking dermatologist but they told us they could not test for DH. 

 

Additionally, a full nutrition work up showed that he (at the time of that test) had low glucose, high creatinine, low chloride, high triglycerides, high HDL and calcium, low phosphorus, low GGTP, very high uric acid, and high albumin. He also has low WBCs, low SEGs, high monocytes, high eosinophigils, and low basophils.

 

Thank you to anyone who can help. Does anyone know if this sounds more like celiac or Crohn's? Is there a way to tell based on lab tests alone? We were, of course, recommended to get a biopsy done, but there isn't a doctor in the country who is familiar with doing celiac biopsies.  (We'd be willing to go to a nearby country, Japan for example, but even there it seems that there are no doctors who can do celiac biopsies.) 

 

 

[pricklypear1971]

Can you contact the lab directly for clarification?

[BelleVie]

Can you contact the lab directly for clarification?

Hm, maybe. But they speak Korean. And I do not. 

[shadowicewolf]

Hm, maybe. But they speak Korean. And I do not. 

Do you have a friend or someone who can interpret them?

[BelleVie]

That's a good idea. The doctor who did the test advised him that he has potential gluten sensitivity/celiac but that he should get a biopsy. I'm just trying to figure out the likelihood of this being celiac or something else. 

[frieze]

if I remember correctly, most medical personnel in Korea will have at least a rudimentary proficiency in English.  Can you get the biopsy done and have the slides sent out?  Korea is not a backward country, it would amaze me that no one there could do the testing ....

[BelleVie]

if I remember correctly, most medical personnel in Korea will have at least a rudimentary proficiency in English.  Can you get the biopsy done and have the slides sent out?  Korea is not a backward country, it would amaze me that no one there could do the testing ....

I can check into it, but the doctor that I was seeing before is the head doctor at an English medical clinic in Seoul, and he told me that he had previously recommended another patient to have a biopsy done, but that the doctors in the local hospitals (the best ones in the country) basically said "no, we can't do that." I wonder how sending the slides out would work? That's certainly worth checking into. Thanks! 

[pricklypear1971]

I can check into it, but the doctor that I was seeing before is the head doctor at an English medical clinic in Seoul, and he told me that he had previously recommended another patient to have a biopsy done, but that the doctors in the local hospitals (the best ones in the country) basically said "no, we can't do that." I wonder how sending the slides out would work? That's certainly worth checking into. Thanks!

I would contact the University of Chicago Celiac Center. They are known for their online communication and resources.

[BelleVie]

Thanks, pricklypear. I'll do that.