Blood Test Accuracy Question

[jnclelland]

My journey to gluten-free started this summer when an acupuncturist suggested that I was allergic to wheat and dairy and should stop eating them. So I did, and felt much better, which made me wonder if I should be tested for celiac disease. So I asked my doctor about it, and he did a blood test, which came back negative.

Here's the question: at the time of the blood test, I had been wheat-free for about 6 weeks, but I was still eating bread made from whole-grain barley flour on a daily basis. Is that enough gluten to make the negative blood test reliable? My doc didn't know, so he consulted a pathologist, who told him that after only 6 weeks there would still be enough antibodies to get a positive test anyway if I had celiac disease. Blood tests for wheat and other food allergies also came back negative.

Since then, I've also cut out all gluten, dairy, yeast, and vinegar, and the rest of my symptoms (rashes mainly) have just about gone away. So I feel sure that I'm at least gluten-intolerant (among other things) if not truly celiac disease, and I'm wondering if there's any reason to question the negative blood test.

Jeanne

P.S. - For what it's worth, several years ago my sister had problems with pretty much the same group of allergens (wheat, dairy, yeast), and after being off them for about a year, she was able to gradually add them back into her diet. So it's entirely possible that it just allergies, I suppose...

[mart]

I don't trust all these blood tests. But that rash sure sounds suspicious...could be DH. I'd start eating wheat again and get re-tested just to be sure.

[jnclelland]

I don't trust all these blood tests.  But that rash sure sounds suspicious...could be DH.  I'd start eating wheat again and get re-tested just to be sure.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm pretty sure the rash isn't DH; it doesn't look anything like the pictures of DH that I've been able to find on the web, and it pretty much went away within a week or so of being off my allergic foods. (The web stuff I've found says DH takes months to go away after going off gluten.) It also flares up for other foods, such as vinegar, so I think it's a more general allergy symptom and not specific to gluten.

Jeanne