Amount Of Gluten To Consume Before Testing

[Lyrae]

Hi, I'm new here. I recently was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, my second one. I decided at that point, based on articles I had read, to go gluten free. I was doing pretty good for about a month. But did start eating gluten again on Thanksgiving (and after). I started to have localized swelling and nose bleeds (which could have been the meds I'm taking but blood work looked good, doctor is unsure what's causing my symptoms). My new GP decided to have me tested for Celiac Disease, had blood work done this morning. So will me going off and on gluten like that change the results? Thanks. 

[NoGlutenCooties]

I think it depends on how long you were off gluten, how efficient your body was at getting rid of the antibodies, and how much gluten you've been eating leading up to the bloodtest.  As well as how high your numbers were before you went gluten-free. 

 

When people have been off gluten for an extended period of time and then want to get tested they will do a gluten challenge, which is usually eating the equivalent of 2 pieces of bread each day for at least 2 months (for the bloodtest).

 

If the bloodtest you just got comes back negative you may want to consider staying on gluten for another month or so and having the test redone.  Also, if the bloodtest comes back positive they will usually want to follow up with an endoscopy and a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis, so if you can stand it you should continue to eat gluten until all of the testing has been completed.

 

Good luck!

[Lyrae]

I think it depends on how long you were off gluten, how efficient your body was at getting rid of the antibodies, and how much gluten you've been eating leading up to the bloodtest.  As well as how high your numbers were before you went gluten-free. 

 

When people have been off gluten for an extended period of time and then want to get tested they will do a gluten challenge, which is usually eating the equivalent of 2 pieces of bread each day for at least 2 months (for the bloodtest).

 

If the bloodtest you just got comes back negative you may want to consider staying on gluten for another month or so and having the test redone.  Also, if the bloodtest comes back positive they will usually want to follow up with an endoscopy and a biopsy to confirm the diagnosis, so if you can stand it you should continue to eat gluten until all of the testing has been completed.

 

Good luck!

 Thank you for your response. I'm hoping with it being such a short time it won't be necessary. 

[nvsmom]

Some antibody levels fall faster than others. The tTG IgA and tTG IgG tend to stay elevated longer than the EMA IgA and DGP tests.

[MGR]

I should have probably done my own question thread, but I feel that my query is related to Lyrae's ... I also have another autoimmune disorder. I naturally have never consumed very much gluten as we always cooking from scratch, I also always control my bread intake because I am always worried to put on weight and keep the pressure on my sore knees down- as one of my symptoms is horrendous unexplained arthritis pains in my joints- always being shaved from one doctor to another-also in the same breath always on some ridiculous low carb diet (my las one was the infamous Ducan diet!! ), etc but I have always marvelled at how wonderful I feel when I am on these diets... Just before Easter I was working in Italy and had to eat pasta and bread, etc at every meal for a week and I got extremely I'll, an this is when my celiac journey started- because I got more and more ill gradually.. To cut a long story short, after the Summer I went gluten free for two months and by the time I had been to the doctor and had a negative blood test, I was told I had to go on a gluten challenge and oh my God! I had a horrendous reaction to eating some gluten containing foodstuff at every mealtime three times a day-by the end of it, I thought I was going to die!

I then had my endoscopy and the surgeon said to me he had seen mild scallopings in my intestine and said that with what he saw and my symptoms he was confident that I was celiac. However, both the biopsy and my blood test were negative at this time again! And my GP doctor said " absolutely no trace of celiac" - now what is the diagnosis then? Am I or am I not,? In the meantime I am very upset and don't understand and I was at a friends house and ate something in spite and immediately I had a sore tummy, and now two days later again I have a herpes growing inside and around my mouth (I have to say, I had them all the time throughout my challenge... ) -

The sum of this rant is, it is exasperating! and one is always at the mercy of idiotic and unsympathetic people.... But I think that your lifestyle and the amount of gluten you ingest is very relevant to the outcome of your test and even after a gluten challenge you can get negative blood results- and the question I have is do people who get DH show the antibodies in the skin rather than in the blood? Does anybody know?

[djsweis]

I am not sure how to ask questions or start a new post on this site, but I think this falls in to what is being asked and said.  I have Hashimoto's (celiac is common with Hashi's) I tested positive on genetic blood test.  I have been off of gluten for 2 years because of the Hashi's.  I scheduled a endoscopy to test for celiac, originally I had 6 weeks to eat gluten.  I was called in early and only consumed gluten for almost 2 weeks.  The endoscopy showed duodenal erosion, doctor said most likely not celiac but did biopsy so waiting for results. I am wondering if the erosion is because I just went back on gluten and it was starting to do damage.  He said it was most likely from aspirin or advil ( I don't take either)