Blood Test Results For My Baby...please Help! :)

[r33buzz 0]

Hi All!

I'm hoping you can help me interpret some tests for my little girl. She's almost 2. She has several signs of celiacs from the research I've done including: 
- anemia
- fat in stool
- inflamation shown from stool tests
- diarrhea for months
- blood in stool constantly (so bad that she was on the verge of a blood transfusion for a while)

She's also more likely to have celiacs because she has Down Syndrome.... 

Okay, so I was told her blood tests were negative but now have the numbers and want to confirm. I see two tests on her records. This is exactly what they say: 

1.
IgA (Immunoglobulin A, Quantitative), serum
92 (4-90 mg/dl) H

2.
Tissue Transglutaminase IgA AB (tTg Iga) Q35142
1 ( ) 


Can anyone interpret that for me??? I see that the Iga is out of the normal range but not sure what that means. Also, is the normal zero for the second test? 

THANK YOU in advance!!!!  

 

[cyclinglady 1,592]

Well, the one celiac test looks negative, but that is a problem. First, babies are harder to test and second, just one celiac blood test was run. (The other test checked for an IGA deficiency which validates the TTG test result.) If my doc did not run the complete panel, my diagnosis would never have been caught. My TTG was negative like your daughter's result. My biopsy showed moderate to severe damage. I guess it is all about reducing costs and catching "most" celiacs. I would ask for the complete panel. The complete panel and endoscopy test includes:

-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

(Source: NVSMOM -- )

Does anyone else in your family suffer from autoimmune disorders (lupus, Type 1 Diabetes, thyroiditis, etc. ?

My heart goes out to you. It is hard to have a little one suffer! Please do not give up and continue to be your daughter's best health advocate!

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

[nvsmom 334]

As Cyclinglady said, it is a good idea to run more than one celiac test (tTG IgA) in case of false negatives.  The tests can miss up to 25% of celiacs, so while a negative means she has a good chance (75%) of not having celiac disease, there is still a chance.

 

The DGP tests are good at detecting celiac disease in the young, and in early cases of the disease.  Also, the IgG based tests work better for a minority of celiacsso it is good to get them (tTG IgG and DGP IgG) done as well.

 

This report (pg 12) shows the sensitivity (SN) of the various tests: http://www.worldgastroenterology.org/assets/export/userfiles/2012_Celiac%20Disease_long_FINAL.pdf

 

If they won't do more testing, or you get negatives but still suspect celiac disease because she is in a higher risk group, you might also want to run the genetic tests to see if she falls into the population at higher risk of developing celiac disease.  Close to 100% of celiacs have the DQ2 and/or the DQ8 genes.  If she has those genes (like 30% of the world does) her risk of getting celiac disease is around 1 in 30.  If she does not have the genes her risk of developing celiac disease is more like 3 in 7000 (if I figured that out correctly).

 

Welcome to the board.