Confused By Test Resulats

[BDD]

I am very confused by my test results. First, I should explain that I have hashimoto's thyroiditis. I am afraid that this might be messing with the results of the blood test (I read that this can give a false positive). My results are:

 

T-TRANSGLUTAMINASE IGA AB

Standard range: <4 U/mL

My value: 66

 

Tissue transglutaminase, IgG

Standard range: <6 U/mL

My value: 55

 

IGA

Standard range: 66 - 433 mg/dL

My value: 184

 

If I'm reading it correctly the IGA is in normal limits and would not indicate Celiac. I was thinking that the Hashimoto's might be messing with the other values?

 

I appreciate any thoughts.

[TriticumToxicum]

The IgA value of 184 is the test for total IgA. This test is important because many people with celiac have an IgA deficiency. You're value is within the given range, which means that you are not IgA deficient.

 

The other values for Tissue Transglutaminase are elevated, which would indicate celiac.

 

Did they test for EMA and deamidated gliadin peptide antibodies? These tests would complete the serologic panel. 

[Brit1612]

I am not an expert by any means, in fact I am on here myself for answers, but since no one has replied to you yet.....

The IGA is not a celiac test, it just shows you that the other celiac test that are based on iga are accurate. Since you were in normal range for your total iga, the first test you mentioned is accurate (if you would have been iga deficient, then you wouldn't have been able to rely on the ttg iga result). Hope that made sense.

The first two test (especially the first) are celiac test, and you were positive for both of those. As for the thyroid, I don't really know the answer to how it can affect the result. I have heard that borderline positives can be affected by chrohn's or thyroid issues, but honestly your results don't appear to be "borderline positive". Also, I have also heard that celiac and thyroid issues commonly appear together.

Good luck to you, I know this is probably not what you were hoping to hear, and please wait for the others to reply, because I am new to all this as well. I do know about the IGA test because my son is IGA deficient. What does your dr say??

[cyclinglady]

Welcome to the club!

Here is a link to a thread found under our "Coping" section:

https://www.celiac.com/forums/topic/91878-newbie-info-101/

Keep eating gluten. Your doctor may want to do a biopsy or add additonal celiac blood tests like EMA and DGP. Questions? We are here to help.

[nvsmom]

I am very confused by my test results. First, I should explain that I have hashimoto's thyroiditis. I am afraid that this might be messing with the results of the blood test (I read that this can give a false positive). My results are:

 

T-TRANSGLUTAMINASE IGA AB

Standard range: <4 U/mL

My value: 66

 

Tissue transglutaminase, IgG

Standard range: <6 U/mL

My value: 55

 

IGA

Standard range: 66 - 433 mg/dL

My value: 184

 

If I'm reading it correctly the IGA is in normal limits and would not indicate Celiac. I was thinking that the Hashimoto's might be messing with the other values?

 

I appreciate any thoughts.

 

As the others said, unfortunately it looks like you have celiac disease.  

 

Your tTG IgA result of 66 is over 15 times the upper limit of normal, abd your tTG IgG result of 55 is almost as bad at over 9 times the normal upper limit.  Those are about as certain as you can get.  As you said, the tTG IgA can on rare occasion (less that 5% of positive tests) be slightly elevated because of thyroiditis, diabetes (T1), crohn's, colitis, chronic liver disease, or a serious infection, but the key word there is "slightly".  

 

I too have Hashi's. When I was diagnosed my tTG IgA was >200 with and upper normal range of 20 (labs all have different ranges).  After eating gluten-free for 9 months my ttG igA was finally down to almost normal - 20.5 or something like that.. THAT is slightly elevated.  I'm afraid your numbers were really quite high.    There is little question with two very positive tests that it must be celiac disease.

 

The IgA is just a control test for your levels of immunoglobulin A.  About 1 in 20 celiacs are deficient in IgA (below normal) which will result in false negative IgA based tests (like tTG IgA, EMA IgA or DGP igA) even when the patient is a very sick celiac.  In those cases the doctor must rely on the IgG based tests (like tTG IgG or DGP IgG) in order to screen for celiac disease.  IgA is not actually a celiac disease test, it is just a control test to make sure your test results are accurate.  Your IgA was normal (like it is in 95% of all celiacs) which means your tTG IgA should have been accurate.

 

Welcome to the board.  I hope you are feeling well soon.

[BDD]

Thank you everyone for your responses. The explanations everyone gave helped me understand the results. I am making another appointment with my GI to talk about it more. I think he wants to refer me to a dietitian. Thank you all again.