What do these test results mean?

[cjones5757]

Hello everyone,

I was diagnosed with celiac disease 2 weeks ago and am now on a gluten free diet.  I wanted to share my test results with you all to see if you can provide more insight into the results?  I ask this because my gastro’s office admin called me with the results and simply said “he believes you have celiac.. you should start a gluten-free diet”.  Maybe this is ok for some people but I want to know more details about what’s going on (in terms of damage, prognosis, and when to follow up).  Here is what I learned from the tests:

Celiac Panel:

Immunoglobulin A – Normal

tTG IgA - <2 – Normal

Ttg IgG – 8 – Weak Positive

Endomysial Antibody IgA – Negative

Deamidated Gliadin Abs, IgA -  Normal

Deamidated Gliadin Abs, IgG – Normal

 Allergy Blood Panel (IGG):

All negative (including wheat) – Test was done 1.5 weeks after I started the gluten free diet though.

 Endoscopy:

No findings.. comments said “rule out celiac spur”.

 Biopsy Results:

Intestinal biopsy said “Increased intraepithelial lymphocytes with intact villous architecture”.  It also said “without associated blunting”.

 

What do you all make of these results?  I tried to follow up with the doctor but they didn’t give me very many details and said I’d need to schedule a follow-up visit to discuss further.  Based on these results what stage of celiac am I in and about how long does it take the body to heal based on my stage?  Also, assuming you go gluten free for a year and everything heals, if you slip and have some gluten (and a reaction) how badly does it re-damage your intestine?  Is it mild or does it then take months to help from that one event?  Appreciate any insight you all could provide.

 

Thank you

 

 

[cyclinglady]

6 hours ago, cjones5757 said:

Hello everyone,

I was diagnosed with celiac disease 2 weeks ago and am now on a gluten free diet.  I wanted to share my test results with you all to see if you can provide more insight into the results?  I ask this because my gastro’s office admin called me with the results and simply said “he believes you have celiac.. you should start a gluten-free diet”.  Maybe this is ok for some people but I want to know more details about what’s going on (in terms of damage, prognosis, and when to follow up).  Here is what I learned from the tests:

Celiac Panel:

Immunoglobulin A – Normal

tTG IgA - <2 – Normal

Ttg IgG – 8 – Weak Positive

Endomysial Antibody IgA – Negative

Deamidated Gliadin Abs, IgA -  Normal

Deamidated Gliadin Abs, IgG – Normal

 Allergy Blood Panel (IGG):

All negative (including wheat) – Test was done 1.5 weeks after I started the gluten free diet though.

 Endoscopy:

No findings.. comments said “rule out celiac spur”.

 Biopsy Results:

Intestinal biopsy said “Increased intraepithelial lymphocytes with intact villous architecture”.  It also said “without associated blunting”.

 

What do you all make of these results?  I tried to follow up with the doctor but they didn’t give me very many details and said I’d need to schedule a follow-up visit to discuss further.  Based on these results what stage of celiac am I in and about how long does it take the body to heal based on my stage?  Also, assuming you go gluten free for a year and everything heals, if you slip and have some gluten (and a reaction) how badly does it re-damage your intestine?  Is it mild or does it then take months to help from that one event?  Appreciate any insight you all could provide.

 

Thank you

 

 

I am not a doctor, but I think it means that you could very well have celiac disease because you had a positive on one of the blood tests and you had an abnormal biopsy.  You could just be developing villi damage.  Trialing the gluten free diet will help your doctor solidly your diagnosis.  

This article discusses your situation.  

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Those lymphocytes could mean something else, like Crohn’s, but ruling out celiac disease seems like a good approach.  

Open Original Shared Link

Hard to say how fast you can heal as there are many things that can delay healing or systemic issues (e.g. osteoporosis) that can take longer.  The Learning curve for the diet is steep.  Read through our Newbie 101 tips under the Coping section of the forum.  With little damage, I would think you would healing within weeks, providing you do not make dietary mistakes (which is common).  

Welcome to the forum!