Diagnostic Parameters?

[tuckersmommas]

Lots of questions... I got my labs back and it was kind of hard to hear the nurse because my son was jibber jabbering. So, she said my labs were negative. But I have a general distrust of dr's and I had a strange gluten reaction, so I was trying to look up the "normal" ranges and I must be googling the wrong terms or something. Anyway, here are my numbers:

tGg 3.7

Anti-Gliadin IgA 9.4

Anti-Gliadin IgG 21.6

(I was tested 2 weeks before going gluten free, though I had cut back)

On to my gluten reaction... my son and I are gluten free and have been since mid-October (he has sensory integration disorder and I believe he is on the autism spectrum so we're trying dietary approaches). When I went off gluten, that first week I got a really strange symptom... I would get these head rushes or head "rattles" where it felt like I was sort of underwater for a second (or kind of like when you yawn). They only last a few seconds, were sporadic and after about a week of eating gluten free, they went away. This is the same thing that happened to me when I withdrew from Zoloft 3 years ago - the exact same withdrawal symptom (only then it went on for months after I'd taken my last dose). Okay, so over Thanksgiving weekend, I threw caution to the wind and had gluten (pot stickers to be exact - yum). I didn't have any gastro symptoms, but the next day, I got the brain "rattles" again which started the next day and went on for that whole day and then I felt kind of foggy for a few days (after that meal, I didn't eat anymore gluten and haven't since).

Another thing that encouraged me to test was that my paternal grandmother died at 49 from what my father terms "a very rare kind of colon cancer" which the doctors described to them as looking like "hamburger wrapped in tissue paper". He also said she was sickly for her whole life so I'm leaning towards the possiblity that she may have had celiac disease, but it will be nearly impossible for me to find out for sure (family history is sketchy, not a very close knit side of the family).

Anyway, the ranges would be helpful, but I know they are not a be all end all. I'll get answers I think when I do another food trail, but I haven't done it yet (I'm kind of scared).

Thanks in advance,

~ danielle

[tarnalberry]

You need to find out the standard ranges from the lab who did your blood work. Different labs have somewhat different methodology, and hence have different reference ranges.

[tuckersmommas]

Good to know, I'll request a copy of the labs tomorrow. Thanks :-)

~ danielle

You need to find out the standard ranges from the lab who did your blood work. Different labs have somewhat different methodology, and hence have different reference ranges.

[tuckersmommas]

Okay... so I got the lab reports... this is their parameters which are the same for all three tests:

negative is <20, weak positive is 20-30, positive is >30

Anti-TTG AbIgA 3.7

Anti-Gliadin AbIgG 21.6 (High)

Anit Gliadin AB IgA 9.4

The dr said the high was fine, something about them balancing each other out. But high is high, even if it's weak I would think that's in indicator of something. I'm not interesting in having celiac disease, but if it's something I should pay attention to, I don't want to ignore it either.

Any advice would be great...

~ danielle

[tarnalberry]

did they do a total IgA?

the tests that are low are IgA ones, and a fair (though not large) number of celiacs are IgA deficient, so you can't really tell anything about the IgA tests without knowing if you produce a normal amount of IgA otherwise.

[tuckersmommas]

would that still be valid now that I've been gluten-free for 3 months (with one infraction midway through)?

what about the (weak) positive IgG? does that mean anything?

~ danielle

[Rachel--24]

would that still be valid now that I've been gluten-free for 3 months (with one infraction midway through)?

You can still have the total IgA test....it wouldnt be affected by the diet.