Jump to content

  • Welcome to Celiac.com!

    You have found your celiac tribe! Join us and ask questions in our forum, share your story, and connect with others.



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A1):

    Celiac.com Sponsor (A1-M):

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Our Content
    eNewsletter
    Donate

Do My Tests Point Towards Celiac Disease?

naomimoore

Recommended Posts

naomimoore Newbie
naomimoore
Posted

Hi Everyone, 

 

I am sure that this question has been asked multiple times but I am new to this forum as well as the Celiac world. I haven't been feeling like myself health-wise for a couple years now, with my stomach always being bloated, crampy, irritated, and just plain old not feeling well. I am a 20 year old nursing student so I had not had the time to focus on what the issue may be but I finally decided that I wanted to figure it out. I love pasta, but every time I ate it my stomach would expand to the size of a 5 month old pregnant woman and become rock solid :unsure: I got tested for gluten sensitivity and the test came back as having high allergen gluten IgG levels. It says that the normal amount is less than 2.0 mcg/mL and my results read 6.4 mcg/mL. The doctor at my school said the only way to determine if this is Celiac is to get a biopsy and see a GI doctor. It's not easy for me to do that as I am a busy student, out of state. I was wondering if anyone knew if this was a good indication of Celiac or non-celiac gluten sensitivity. I know it is hard to determine from that one test but I'm looking for all the help I can get. Thank you! 

 

- Naomi Moore 

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):
Celiac.com Sponsor (A8):

Celiac.com Sponsor (A8-M):


Ennis-TX Grand Master
Ennis-TX
Posted
2 hours ago, naomimoore said:

Hi Everyone, 

 

I am sure that this question has been asked multiple times but I am new to this forum as well as the Celiac world. I haven't been feeling like myself health-wise for a couple years now, with my stomach always being bloated, crampy, irritated, and just plain old not feeling well. I am a 20 year old nursing student so I had not had the time to focus on what the issue may be but I finally decided that I wanted to figure it out. I love pasta, but every time I ate it my stomach would expand to the size of a 5 month old pregnant woman and become rock solid :unsure: I got tested for gluten sensitivity and the test came back as having high allergen gluten IgG levels. It says that the normal amount is less than 2.0 mcg/mL and my results read 6.4 mcg/mL. The doctor at my school said the only way to determine if this is Celiac is to get a biopsy and see a GI doctor. It's not easy for me to do that as I am a busy student, out of state. I was wondering if anyone knew if this was a good indication of Celiac or non-celiac gluten sensitivity. I know it is hard to determine from that one test but I'm looking for all the help I can get. Thank you! 

 

- Naomi Moore 

There is a bit more comprehensive full celiac panel for screening then they confirm diagnosis with the biopsy of the small intestine via endoscope. You have to be eating gluten daily for the testing to be accurate I will post a link to read up on it, and some more comprehensive ones if you wish. You can go and get the blood test down now and perhaps see about getting a GI consult and endoscope scheduled for this upcoming spring break if your lucky. Your intial test results and the distention make me think you probably have it. IF confirmed we can help you out more with dealing with this. PS tons of gluten free pasta options so no loss there, heck I even found carb free pasta to help me with my extra restrictions from my additional AI disease. Open Original Shared Link
 

cyclinglady Grand Master
cyclinglady
Posted
7 hours ago, naomimoore said:

Hi Everyone, 

 

I am sure that this question has been asked multiple times but I am new to this forum as well as the Celiac world. I haven't been feeling like myself health-wise for a couple years now, with my stomach always being bloated, crampy, irritated, and just plain old not feeling well. I am a 20 year old nursing student so I had not had the time to focus on what the issue may be but I finally decided that I wanted to figure it out. I love pasta, but every time I ate it my stomach would expand to the size of a 5 month old pregnant woman and become rock solid :unsure: I got tested for gluten sensitivity and the test came back as having high allergen gluten IgG levels. It says that the normal amount is less than 2.0 mcg/mL and my results read 6.4 mcg/mL. The doctor at my school said the only way to determine if this is Celiac is to get a biopsy and see a GI doctor. It's not easy for me to do that as I am a busy student, out of state. I was wondering if anyone knew if this was a good indication of Celiac or non-celiac gluten sensitivity. I know it is hard to determine from that one test but I'm looking for all the help I can get. Thank you! 

 

- Naomi Moore 

Well.....as a nurse, you better get used to taking orders from a doctor.  Fortunately, your school doctor gave you excellent advice.  You will need to see a GI.  What to do now?  Confirm that you took the appropriate test for antibodies (autoimmune).  It sounds like you took a food allergy test (IgG) and that is not the same.    If you can, post the actual verbage  from the test. These are the actual celiac antibodies tests (as Ennis pointed out):

Open Original Shared Link

Igg antibody versions in celiac testing are often ordered when an IgA deficiency is suspected.  If you just had some blood allergy testing (which is not super accurate for anything (e.g. cat dander, trees, peanuts), ask your school doctor to run the celiac panel.  Any medical doctor can do this.  After confirming you took the proper tests and/or get a positive on the celiac panel,  set up a GI appointment today at home after school is out or considering Spring Break.  Doctors offices may be willing to work around your schedule.   After all, you are a nursing student (you are in the club now).  

Getting  a celiac disease diagnosis can be complicated, especially in your situation.  Please research (college students are good at this) so that you can make an informed decision.   Best bet, is to simply start with the celiac antibodies blood panel.  

naomimoore Newbie
naomimoore
Posted
  • Author
On 2/21/2018 at 8:31 PM, cyclinglady said:

Well.....as a nurse, you better get used to taking orders from a doctor.  Fortunately, your school doctor gave you excellent advice.  You will need to see a GI.  What to do now?  Confirm that you took the appropriate test for antibodies (autoimmune).  It sounds like you took a food allergy test (IgG) and that is not the same.    If you can, post the actual verbage  from the test. These are the actual celiac antibodies tests (as Ennis pointed out):

Open Original Shared Link

Igg antibody versions in celiac testing are often ordered when an IgA deficiency is suspected.  If you just had some blood allergy testing (which is not super accurate for anything (e.g. cat dander, trees, peanuts), ask your school doctor to run the celiac panel.  Any medical doctor can do this.  After confirming you took the proper tests and/or get a positive on the celiac panel,  set up a GI appointment today at home after school is out or considering Spring Break.  Doctors offices may be willing to work around your schedule.   After all, you are a nursing student (you are in the club now).  

Getting  a celiac disease diagnosis can be complicated, especially in your situation.  Please research (college students are good at this) so that you can make an informed decision.   Best bet, is to simply start with the celiac antibodies blood panel.  

Thank you for your help! 

 

So if my blood test was simply for the blood allergy testing but came back positive for having high gluten allergen levels what would this mean? That I am at least sensitive to gluten? Or could it mean nothing at all? I have an appointment in a few weeks to see my primary care doctor and get a referral to a GI doctor. I have stopped eating gluten as best I can since the results came back and I feel a little better lately with more energy but I want definite answers before I decide to completely eliminate gluten from my diet full time. However, even if I am non-celiac gluten sensitive I will still want to take gluten out of my diet. Thank you for all of your help! 

kareng Grand Master
kareng
Posted
25 minutes ago, naomimoore said:

Thank you for your help! 

 

So if my blood test was simply for the blood allergy testing but came back positive for having high gluten allergen levels what would this mean? That I am at least sensitive to gluten? Or could it mean nothing at all? I have an appointment in a few weeks to see my primary care doctor and get a referral to a GI doctor. I have stopped eating gluten as best I can since the results came back and I feel a little better lately with more energy but I want definite answers before I decide to completely eliminate gluten from my diet full time. However, even if I am non-celiac gluten sensitive I will still want to take gluten out of my diet. Thank you for all of your help! 

If you want accurate tests for Celiac do NOT go gluten free until all testing is complete.  Blood allergy tests don’t seem to be very accurate for food allergies and do not test for Celiac.  

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Get Celiac.com Updates:
    Support Celiac.com:
    Join eNewsletter
    Donate
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A17):
    Celiac.com Sponsor (A17):



    Celiac.com Sponsors (A17-M):



  • Recent Activity

    1. Scott Adams
      - Scott Adams replied to HAUS's topic in Gluten-Free Foods, Products, Shopping & Medications
      7

      Sainsbury's Free From White Sliced Bread - Now Egg Free - Completely Ruined It

      In the U.S., most regular wheat breads are required to be enriched with certain B-vitamins and iron, but gluten-free breads are not required to be. Since many gluten-free products are not enriched, we usually encourage people with celiac disease to consider a multivitamin. In the early 1900s, refined white flour replaced whole grains, and people began...
    2. Scott Adams
      - Scott Adams replied to deanna1ynne's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      13

      Inconclusive results

      Keep in mind that there are drawbacks to a formal diagnosis, for example more expensive life and private health insurance, as well as possibly needing to disclose it on job applications. Normally I am in favor of the formal diagnosis process, but if you've already figured out that you can't tolerate gluten and will likely stay gluten-free anyway, I wanted...
    3. JoJo0611
      - JoJo0611 replied to JoJo0611's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      6

      CT with contrast.

      Thank you.
    4. deanna1ynne
      - deanna1ynne replied to deanna1ynne's topic in Celiac Disease Pre-Diagnosis, Testing & Symptoms
      13

      Inconclusive results

      Thank you all so much for your advice and thoughts. We ended up having another scope and more bloodwork last week. All serological markers continue to increase, and the doc who did the scope said there villous atrophy visible on the scope — but we just got the biopsy pathology report back, and all it says is, “Duodenal mucosa with patchy increased int...
    5. cristiana
      - cristiana replied to HAUS's topic in Gluten-Free Foods, Products, Shopping & Medications
      7

      Sainsbury's Free From White Sliced Bread - Now Egg Free - Completely Ruined It

      Thanks for this Russ, and good to see that it is fortified. I spend too much time looking for M&S gluten-free Iced Spiced Buns to have ever noticed this! That's interesting, Scott. Have manufacturers ever said why that should be the case?
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A19):


  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      132,439
    • Most Online (within 30 mins)
      7,748
    Lillian Steele
    Newest Member
    Lillian Steele
    Joined
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A20):

  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      121.5k
    • Total Posts
      1m
  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A22):



  • Celiac.com Sponsor (A21):


  • Upcoming Events

  • Posts

    • Scott Adams
      Sainsbury's Free From White Sliced Bread - Now Egg Free - Completely Ruined It

      By Scott Adams · Posted

      In the U.S., most regular wheat breads are required to be enriched with certain B-vitamins and iron, but gluten-free breads are not required to be. Since many gluten-free products are not enriched, we usually encourage people with celiac disease to consider a multivitamin.  In the early 1900s, refined white flour replaced whole grains, and people began developing serious vitamin-deficiency diseases: Beriberi → caused by a lack of thiamin (vitamin B1) Pellagra → caused by a lack of niacin (vitamin B3) Anemia → linked to low iron and lack of folate By the 1930s–40s, these problems were common in the U.S., especially in poorer regions. Public-health officials responded by requiring wheat flour and the breads made from it to be “enriched” with thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, and iron. Folic acid was added later (1998) to prevent neural-tube birth defects. Why gluten-free bread isn’t required to be enriched? The U.S. enrichment standards were written specifically for wheat flour. Gluten-free breads use rice, tapioca, corn, sorghum, etc.—so they fall outside that rule—but they probably should be for the same reason wheat products are.
    • Scott Adams
      Inconclusive results

      By Scott Adams · Posted

      Keep in mind that there are drawbacks to a formal diagnosis, for example more expensive life and private health insurance, as well as possibly needing to disclose it on job applications. Normally I am in favor of the formal diagnosis process, but if you've already figured out that you can't tolerate gluten and will likely stay gluten-free anyway, I wanted to at least mention the possible negative sides of having a formal diagnosis. While I understand wanting a formal diagnosis, it sounds like she will likely remain gluten-free either way, even if she should test negative for celiac disease (Approximately 10x more people have non-celiac gluten sensitivity than have celiac disease, but there isn’t yet a test for NCGS. If her symptoms go away on a gluten-free diet, it would likely signal NCGS).        
    • JoJo0611
      CT with contrast.

      By JoJo0611 · Posted

      Thank you. 
    • deanna1ynne
      Inconclusive results

      By deanna1ynne · Posted

      Thank you all so much for your advice and thoughts. We ended up having another scope and more bloodwork last week. All serological markers continue to increase, and the doc who did the scope said there villous atrophy visible on the scope — but we just got the biopsy pathology report back, and all it says is, “Duodenal mucosa with patchy increased intraepithelial lymphocytes, preserved villous architecture, and patchy foveolar metaplasia,” which we are told is still inconclusive…  We will have her go gluten free again anyway, but how soon would you all test again, if at all? How valuable is an official dx in a situation like this?
    • cristiana
      Sainsbury's Free From White Sliced Bread - Now Egg Free - Completely Ruined It

      By cristiana · Posted

      Thanks for this Russ, and good to see that it is fortified. I spend too much time looking for M&S gluten-free Iced Spiced Buns to have ever noticed this! That's interesting, Scott.  Have manufacturers ever said why that should be the case?  
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

NOTICE: This site places This site places cookies on your device (Cookie settings). on your device. Continued use is acceptance of our Terms of Use, and Privacy Policy.