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[emily1248]

About a year and a half ago I went to the doctor with GI symptoms. She tested me for Celiac and it came back positive.

TISSUE TRANSGLUTAMINASE IgG	1.03 Index	<=0.90 Index
Tissue transglutaminase IgA	1.39 Index	<=0.90 Index

 

Unfortunately she told me to stop eating gluten instead of sending me to a GI doctor. Once I finally got to a GI doctor I had been gluten free for about 3 months. We did a biopsy anyways and it came back negative but I was not eating gluten so that does not say much. About a year later we rechecked my labs to see if they had gone down on a gluten free diet. They had so the doctors thought it was Celiac.

Tissue transglutaminase IgA	0.68 Index	<=0.90 Index
TISSUE TRANSGLUTAMINASE IgG	0.46 Index	<=0.90 Index

 

I am still having GI problems and nothing has made them better so last week the GI doctor ordered more labs and some of them were for Celiac. I thought I was still eating gluten free but one of the labs came back positive. Do you think this is because I am somehow eating gluten or do you think this is more indicative of another autoimmune disease? I find it weird that one is positive and the other is negative.

COMPONENT	YOUR VALUE	STANDARD RANGE
TISSUE TRANSGLUTAMINASE IGA (U/ML)	15.9 U/mL	<=14.9 U/mL
DEAMIDATED GLIADIN PEPTIDE IGA, QUALITATIVE, EIA	3.8 U/mL	<=14.9 U/mL

[cyclinglady]

I am sorry that you are still not well.  

The good news is that you have healed on the gluten-free diet.  It sounds like you may have had a gluten exposure or you could be developing another autoimmune disorder.  The most common thing would be a gluten exposure.  

I can tell you that just having one positive on the celiac panel means something.  Do not discount it.   You do not need a positive for every test on the celiac panel.  I test positive (with gluten) only to the DGP IgA even in followup tests.  I have never had a positive TTG or EMA and I have two other autoimmune disorders and am biopsy confirmed. 

What to do now?  Consider trialing the Fasano diet for a few months.    It is strict.  No processed foods.  Only rice is allowed.  No canned or frozen veggies or fruit, etc.  No eating out!    If your symptoms dissipate, then you know gluten was probably the cause of your elevated TTG IgA.  If symptoms do not improve, your GI and you should rule out SIBO, UC, Crohn’s, etc.  

I trialed this diet a while back.  It did not work.  A repeat endoscopy showed healed villi, but that I had autoimmune Gastritis (unfortunately, the gluten-free diet does not help it).  

https://res.mdpi.com/nutrients/nutrients-09-01129/article_deploy/nutrients-09-01129.pdf?filename=&attachment=1