in process of diagnosis

[christy73]

I had an endoscopy with biopsies taken.  The appearance of my small intestines were that of Celiac, also the biopsy results were positive for Celiac disease.  I immediately put myself on a gluten free diet.  Three weeks later was had the follow up with doctor.  At this time they did the blood work for Celiac.  They said the blood work must be positive along with biopsy results for confirmed diagnosis.  My question is if I was gluten free for three weeks prior to blood work, how will the blood test results show positive for Celiac?  Thank you for any help given.

[RMJ]

It usually takes more than 3 weeks on the gluten free diet for antibody levels to go down to normal.  However, if your blood tests come back negative, you may want to do a gluten challenge and retest.

[plumbago]

RMJ - can you give a link about what you said about the antibodies going down after three weeks? And, which antibodies? Thanks!

[cyclinglady]

1 hour ago, plumbago said:

RMJ - can you give a link about what you said about the antibodies going down after three weeks? And, which antibodies? Thanks!

This is not going to help the original poster, but this info should help you. 

Open Original Shared Link

"How long does it take for the tTG blood test for celiac disease to be normal? 

It depends on the test. One of the tests used most often, tissue transglutaminase (tTG), has a half-life of six months. In other words, it should drop by a half-fold in six months. Hence, if you started off at a tTG level in the thousands, it might take several years to normalize. However, most tTG levels normalize within several months to one year in adults on the gluten-free diet. 

Many times it is tricky to predict when the test should become normal since some tTG tests don’t report values beyond a certain value. For example, one test reports values up to 120 mg/dl after which all values whether, in the hundreds or thousands, are reported in the same manner, i.e. >120. Visit Blood Tests under Medical Management on Open Original Shared Link. 

Is it important to have repeat blood tests or biopsies to confirm that I have celiac disease? 

It is important to be accurately diagnosed with blood tests and a biopsy before going on a gluten-free diet. After starting the diet, follow-up tests are individualized based on age, symptoms, and other health problems. Routine follow-up with a dietitian skilled in celiac disease and a gastroenterologist is strongly recommended. In most cases, blood tests are performed on a regular basis, while repeat biopsies are not usually necessary. A doctor will determine which specific tests are needed. Visit Blood Tests under Medical Management on Open Original Shared Link."

[squirmingitch]

christy73, I fail to understand why your doc didn't do your blood work prior to the biopsies. Why were you having an endoscopy? When the biopsies came back positive for celiac, did the doc tell you to go gluten free right away? This is all backwards. You get the blood tests & then the endoscopy not the other way around. Plus, biopsy is the gold standard; if you have biopsy proven celiac there should be no need to confirm with serum panel. 

Be aware that it's possible your blood panel will come back negative especially if they didn't give you the entire panel.