Positive Ttg And Ema, Yeast Rash....if Not Celiac Then...?

[Michelle1]

I've been reading too much! I'm waiting to see the gastro and have been reading about yeast because I have a neck rash going on 3 weeks now and the dermatologist examined a scraping of it and saw yeast in it. I also just treated a female yeast inf (sorry guys!) and am wondering now after everything could yeast cause the blood tests to be positive? I read a study on uncontrolled yeast causing celiac in succeptable ppl is possible but is it possible if the biopsy is negative that it could be just yeast even though the ttg and ema are specifically related to celiac? Am I making any sense here?

[LauraTX]

Your questions do make sense!  There are many things that are thought to possibly stress the body to manifest Celiac disease.  According to the Mayo Clinic "Sometimes celiac disease is triggered — or becomes active for the first time — after surgery, pregnancy, childbirth, viral infection or severe emotional stress."   Whatever triggers it is a separate issue from the celiac disease, and the celiac is there to stay, unfortunately.  

 

Yeast would not cause the blood tests to be positive.  The ttg and ema are related to celiac only.  Also, I wouldn't look too far into the yeast thing- female problems are very common, and unless your dermatologist definitely said the yeast found is what is causing your rash, there may be no real link to the two.  Also, be cautious as to what sources you read online about yeast problems, they can go into gray areas.

 

I know it is a bummer to have to wait, let us know what the GI says when you have your appointment.

[Michelle1]

Thanks for that! It's so hard waiting!!

[Fenrir]

I think my Celiac was activated by having my gallbladder taken out or maybe the Celiac killed off the gallbladder. Either way, I think the two are connected. As far as yeast infections cause a false positve tTG goes; no it would not. The celiac antibody tests detect antibodies specificaly made when your intestines are being damaged by a celiac autoimmune reaction. People without celiac diisease don't make those antibodies, people with celiac disease do so the test is very specific and normal people shouldn't have any antibodies for celiac disease in their blood. However, there are a very small number of people who haev another autoimmune disease that can cause the test to be false positive and those are people with Crohn's disease or autoimmune hepatitis.

 

If you are tTG positive (weak or strong) you have a 95% or more chance of having celiac disease, but it should be confirmed with a biopsy.

[nvsmom]

It's possible to have a negative biopsy and still have celiac disease; I would even say it's not uncommon. The EMA IgA is about 98% specific to celiac disease, and the tTG IgA is about 95% specific to celiac disease - combined, that's pretty much a sure thing. I was positive in those two tests and my doctor did not insist on a biopsy because he was sure it was celiac disease.

 

If you already had a negative biopsy, my guess is that the doctors missed the damage during the endoscopy.

 

Hope your yeast problem clears up soon. I believe that drastically reducing your sugar and carb intake can help eliminate yeast a little faster.  Best wishes.