Online Labs Or Home Testing Kits?

[ryo]

i would love to hear any thoughts on online labs for having a celiac panel done. our daughter just had a biopsy today and we need to have the rest of our family tested soon.  our son will be tested with his dr but my husband and i are not insured and would just like to have the blood test so we can get some information before our household is gluten-free.  i know the very best path would be to start with a dr., have the test run, and do a biopsy if needed. honestly, it is just not an option for us right now.  i realize we are setting ourselves up to possibly have to retest or even do a gluten challenge down the road but i will cross that bridge when i get to it!

 

so we are looking at online labs and home testing kits.  has anyone done either?  any recommendations?

 

thank you in advance for your time!

[nvsmom]

I did the Biocard home test which is a tTG IgA test, and it will also show if you have adequate total serum IgA. I had a barely positive line (it's like a pregnancy test) and when I went to the doctor to confirm with another test, it was very positive. I got it on sale (in Canada) for $50 but I think it is usually closer to $80.

 

tTG IgA has a sensitivity of about 75-96% so that means it could miss up to 25% of celiacs. It might be a good idea to do more than one type of test so you can be more sure of the results.

 

The fecal tests are not widely accepted - they tend to have a high false positive rate.

 

Good luck.