New, And Wondering...

[marierush]

I have just noticed that my distended belly and gas and erratic bowel habits may be a gluten issue.  I have an appointment (again) with GP this week, and I started myself on a gluten-free diet yesterday, just to see if I had any relief from the bloating...I had a colonoscopy done two years ago, and at that time they saw no need for any further testing.  Any recommendations for me right now, until I can get in to see my doctor?  Thanks in advance!

M

[cyclinglady]

Yes, keep eating gluten if you seriously think you could have celiac disease. You will get a negative result if you are not consuming gluten. Any MD can order the necessary tests and these include:

tTG IgA and tTG IgG

-DGP IgA and DGP IgG

-EMA IgA

-total serum IgA and IgG (control test)

-AGA IGA and AGA IgG - older and less reliable tests largely replace by the DGP tests

-endoscopic biopsy - make sure at least 6 samples are taken (that's for the small intestine where celiac disease strikes. A colonoscopy just checks the large intestine.

Check out the University of Chicago's celiac website for more testing information and a list of celiac disease symptoms.

Welcome to the forum and let us know how it goes!

[nvsmom]

Ditto Cyclinglady, you'll need to keep eating gluten until your testing is complete.  Hopefully your GP will order the tests.  Try to get as many of the previously listed tests as possible because there is not a perfect celiac disease test yet, and these tests can miss a large minority of celiacs.

 

This report has more info on the tests (pages 8-12): Open Original Shared Link You can see the sensitivities (what percentage of celiacs it catches) are not perfect.

 

Good luck, and welcome to the board.