Help With Child's Test Results!

[fuzzygantt]

My 7 year old has begun exhibiting extreme symptoms..

Low weight gain, distended abdomen, and after ingesting wheat, cold sweats, extreme cramping, nausea, explosive diarrhea which is loose, foul and "whipped" / greasy looking, for HOURS on end in the bathroom. It usually takes about a day and a half of ingesting gluten for her symptoms to manifest, but then continue on like clockwork nightly if she continues to ingest it.

I too suffer, but lack the insurance to get tested.

Our pediatrician denies it's genetic. He's an older dr though.. He was my fathers pediatrician too. It does run in our family though. We lucked out and saw another dr as ours was on call. He ordered blood work, as he believed it truly was celiac. He also stated if blood was negative, he wanted a colon scope done.

Results were: (TTG)

IgG 1.5

IgA 0.6

I had taken her off gluten on my own 2 weeks prior. I let her have a slice of pizza the morning of our dr visit though.

Problem is, our pediatrician says the colon scope is too invasive and he doesn't see it necessary and refuses to sign off on it. Help! Should I keep pushing it? I had the same symptoms as a child and was diagnosed as IBS as a child. (I'm 27 now.)

[SkyBlue4]

Were those the only tests that were run? Did they provide you with a total IGA number?

Can you post the lab reference ranges, too?

 

If you suspect celiac disease, they would perform an endoscopy and not a colonoscopy.

It's frustrating when your pediatrician doesn't work with you. I've been there! Can you see a different doctor? 

[tommysmommy]

I highly recommend you find a new doctor! I had many doctors refuse to test until I took my son off of gluten and he improved. If celiac is the issue (and it sure sounds likely) then living gluten-free will give her new life!

[GF Lover]

Fuzzy,

 

The proper tests for Celiac are:

 

• AGA (antigliadin antibodies)-IgA
• AGA-IgG
• tTG (anti-tissue transglutaminase)-IgA
• EMA (anti-endomysial antibodies)-IgA
• Total serum IgA

Followed by an Endoscopy procedure.  You must eat gluten 3-6 weeks for an accurate result.  And yes, Celiac can be genetic.  I would find a new pediatrician.

 

Colleen

[powerofpositivethinking]

adding to Colleen's list make sure DGP iga and DGP igg tests are also run because those are newer and more accurate than the older AGA tests

 

Fuzzy,

 

The proper tests for Celiac are:

 

• AGA (antigliadin antibodies)-IgA
• AGA-IgG
• tTG (anti-tissue transglutaminase)-IgA
• EMA (anti-endomysial antibodies)-IgA
• Total serum IgA

Followed by an Endoscopy procedure.  You must eat gluten 3-6 weeks for an accurate result.  And yes, Celiac can be genetic.  I would find a new pediatrician.

 

Colleen

[eers03]

I would want an immunoglobulin panel to know what they are doing.  She could be absent IGA.  If the IGG and IGA celiac markers do not come back positive and you are convinced that gluten-free makes a difference, keep her gluten-free and see how it goes.  As for your pediatrician, on one hand its easy to be upset that they are not ordering an endoscopy but the flip side of it is, some peds are too quick to order invasive procedures that make the hospital money.

 

If the pre-req is a positive blood test and that doesn't return positive, that physician may not feel that there is a need to put the child through an invasive procedure.

 

Only you can be the judge of character as to whether or not that pediatrician is really listening to you and exercising their best judgement.

 

With that being said...  Although I'm not a child seeing a pediatrician, it wasn't until I finally insisted on a colonoscopy for the nagging ache in my abdomen that I was referred to a gastro that said...  "Hmmm, your colonoscopy was clear and you are Absent IGA, you should do a celiac panel."  Boom.  There it was.  It came back positive and then we did the endo biopsy to confirm it.  It took my gastro 1 or 2 visits to diagnose something that my PCP still didn't buy into until he saw the lab results and the biopsy results.  His words early on were "If you don't immediately have to run to the bathroom after eating pizza or a pastry, you don't have Celiac, you'd know it."  Thats not necessarily true.

 

Good luck...