Antibody Testing

[guy220d]

I have a speculation and I would like some feedback. I know that the average celiac sufferer has been presenting symptoms to doctors for around 9-10 years before finally receiving a diagnosis of celiac disease. I'm guessing such a patient would have extensive damage and elevated endomysial and transglutaminase antibody levels, as well as the antibodies to gliadin. But let's say someone caught celiac symptoms early on, within a couple months (instead of 9-10 years) of the onset of symptoms. What would his/her antibodies look like? I'm guessing that the IgG and maybe the IgA anti-gliadin levels would be rising but he others would not have had time to develop.(?)

[CMCM]

I have a speculation and I would like some feedback. I know that the average celiac sufferer has been presenting symptoms to doctors for around 9-10 years before finally receiving a diagnosis of celiac disease. I'm guessing such a patient would have extensive damage and elevated endomysial and transglutaminase antibody levels, as well as the antibodies to gliadin. But let's say someone caught celiac symptoms early on, within a couple months (instead of 9-10 years) of the onset of symptoms. What would his/her antibodies look like? I'm guessing that the IgG and maybe the IgA anti-gliadin levels would be rising but he others would not have had time to develop.(?)

It's probably hard to say because each person is different. Using myself as an example, I'm 56 and had certain symptoms as an infant (I couldn't tolerate milk). I don't remember problems in my teens, maybe not even in my 20's, but I always had a feeling I had problems with dairy....when the idea of lactose intolerance became a buzz word, I figured it was that. HOWEVER....since I was always eating gluten along with dairy, now I believe they were both acting on my system with a double whammy.

My mom is celiac, but I did not have the same symptoms AND I didn't fully understand the genetic link and neither did she, so I never thought of that. I remember I had lots of odd symptoms beginning in my 30's, continuing to this year. I got a celiac blood test in 2001 and it was negative. As symptoms increased, I really cut back on gluten and dairy (suspecting them both, but never really sure of which one was worse), and as of Nov. 25 I went gluten & casein free. In Jan. of this year I did the Enterolab stool test, which showed high antibody scores BUT...happily, it also showed no malabsorption despite 25+ years of symptoms. Enterolab said possibly because I have actually minimized my wheat eating for a year or two, the damage could have been worse before, and now was better. When I got tested I had eaten no wheat for 5 weeks, and minimal wheat for 6 months or more. Damage could have mostly healed even though I was still eating some gluten here and there. My point is that damage heals, probably quicker for some than others. And I have no way of knowing which of my 2 genes is operational (I have both a celiac gene and a gluten sensitivity gene). Enterolab doesn't think it matters; either way I shouldn't eat gluten, and either one can make you equally ill. Perhaps what I have going on hasn't turned into celiac...perhaps it never will. I can't know without a biopsy, which I don't intend to have. At least now I know my risks, I know how I feel eating and not eating gluten (and also dairy, in my case). Enterolab says gluten sensitivity can also damage the intestines in exactly the same way as diagnosed celiac disease does, but it doesn't lead to such overall systemic damage as does celiac...that's the main difference. And casein can also damage the intestines same as gluten if you are casein sensitive.

My mom had totally destroyed villi and she was dying of malnutrition at the point where she was diagnosed after at least 7 years of doctors telling her it was in her head. She had certain symptoms long before that, but it wasn't debilitating until a certain point when celiac was probably triggered by a surgery. After just 4 months on a gluten free diet she was healthy and had gained back her lost weight. About a year later doctors did another endoscopy/biopsy and her intestines looked normal, as they still would today as well since she never eats gluten and hasn't done so for nearly 40 years.

This is a long way to answer that if you caught things early, you certainly could show anywhere from low to high levels on your tests, but might have not yet incurred intestinal damage. The best thing is to catch it early and adjust your diet before you have damage or get some other autoimmune disease as well, or worse yet, show up with some sort of cancer (which is how some people find out about celiac disease! Remember that there is a segment of the population with "silent celiac", i.e. they would show antibodies but have no symptoms, yet the intestinal damage is being done. The unfortunate thing is that the blood test doesn't always catch it early enough. The stool test would, however. And the gene test is a useful bit of knowledge too, to know your chances in the whole picture.