Labs are weak positive, pending biopsy results

[vero1014]

I had an EGD w/ biopsy and Colonoscopy yesterday, my path results will be ready in about 2 weeks. Just a history of weight loss of 20lbs over a few months, appetite loss, some GERD and non specific abdominal discomfort, idiopathic constipation. I take medication for anxiety, autoimmune hypothyroidism.

 

I'm an RN myself but very unfamiliar with these types of labs. Can anyone who understands them well elaborate on a "weak" positive? What I've read, it seems as that these labs are rarely incorrect.

[vero1014]

Sorry, not sure if I can post a pic but I have the labs that were done prior to my procedure.

[trents]

Welcome to the forum, Vero1014!

There are a number of antibody tests that can be run when looking for celiac disease. Some of them are very specific for celiac disease and others not so much. Celiac disease produces inflammation in the villous lining of the small bowel and this generates antibodies. The most common antibody test that physicians order when checking for celiac disease is the tTG-IGA as it combines good specificity with good sensitivity. But because some people experience atypical immune system responses to celiac disease there are other tests that can  be run that will sometimes catch what the tTG-IGA misses. Here is a summary that may help you understand the antibody test options:

If you would post the results of your antibody testing we would be able to help you more. We need the names of the tests and the score for each. We need not only the raw test scores but the reference ranges used by the lab that analyzed them to differentiate negative from positive. There is not an industry standard for these test scales as each lab develops them in a custom way.

You only have a very short time to edit posts such as when you go back to add in pics. This is an anti-spam measure. But, get the test pics ready an on hand and open up another post window to insert them. You can also just manually type them in.

All the symptoms you list are common in the celiac community.

 

[vero1014]

1. 12 hours ago, vero1014 said:

   1. I had an EGD w/ biopsy and Colonoscopy yesterday, my path results will be ready in about 2 weeks. Just a history of weight loss of 20lbs over a few months, appetite loss, some GERD and non specific abdominal discomfort, idiopathic constipation. I take medication for anxiety, autoimmune hypothyroidism.
   2.  
   3. I'm an RN myself but very unfamiliar with these types of labs. Can anyone who understands them well elaborate on a "weak" positive? What I've read, it seems as that these labs are rarely incorrect.

Quote

Antigliadin Abs, IgA

Deamidated Gliadin Abs, IgA01 Result: 5 units

 Negative 0 - 19

 Weak Positive 20 - 30

Moderate to Strong Positive >30

Antigliadin Abs, IgG

Deamidated Gliadin Abs, IgG01 Result: 2 units

 Negative 0 - 19

 Weak Positive 20 - 30

 Moderate to Strong Positive >30

 

t-Transglutaminase (tTG) IgA

t-Transglutaminase (tTG) IgA Result: <2 U/mL

 Negative 0 - 3

 Weak Positive 4 - 10

 Positive >10

 Tissue Transglutaminase (tTG) has been identified

 as the endomysial antigen. Studies have demonstr-

 ated that endomysial IgA antibodies have over 99%

 specificity for gluten sensitive enteropathy.

 

t-Transglutaminase (tTG) IgG

t-Transglutaminase (tTG) IgG01 Result: 8 High U/mL

 Negative 0 - 5

 Weak Positive 6 - 9

 Positive >9

[Wheatwacked]

11 hours ago, vero1014 said:

medication for anxiety, autoimmune hypothyroidism.

You may have set a record for the time it took to go from symptom to diagnose.  Many take up to 10 years and go through all kinds of medications and procedures because the results are only borderline.  Take it as a heads up before you get really sick.

Get your vitamin D blood plasma (25-hydroxyvitamin D) tested. It is common for Celiac Disease and most other autoimmune diseases to be deficient.  Actually 40% of adults in the US are low. It is the master controller of bone health, mental health and immune health when you get to 80 ng/ml.  Lifeguards in August run at 70 to 90 ng/ml. Thats equal to 200 nmol/L.  Medically the minimum is only 29 ng/ml, enough to prevent Rickets and they say there is "insufficient data" to connect low D to anything else.  My son (diagnosed Celiac disease by biopsy in 1976 as soon as he was weaned) is an Ocean guard and last year was told he needed to supplement D. Shows how well their protective gear works.

If you read studies on vitamin D, you might notice that the results are always for greater than or less than 29 ng/ml. Why is that?

Hyper and hypo thyroidism is often the effect of low iodine intake.  So the treatment for hypothyroidism is thyroxine which is (Surprise!) 60% iodine by weight.  A couple of sheets of Nori (42 mcg per sheet) is a lot cheaper. The safe range is 150 mcg to 1100 mcg in the US. Intake has dropped 50% since 1970 and cancer rates have doubled.  The Japanese average intake starts around 1000 mcg and oddly their breast cancer rate is half the rate of that in the US.  Low iodine also affects hair loss, fertility, muscle tone, brain health, Cretanism in children.  It is the immune system's hitman. It kills off aging and defective cells. Suffer low iodine and cancer runs amuck.

There is a type of anxiety caused by low Lithium.  Though not yet a Essential Mineral officially, there is an effort being made to get an RDA of 1mg, with safe upper tolerable limit of 40 mg.  We are talking Lithium Picolate at 1 to 5 mg, not the 1500 mg doses of Litium Carbonate used to smoke brain cell as a replacement for electro shock therapy.  Personally I take 5 mg a day, on and off, and it helps ease the urge to act on something immediately when it is not appropriate🙈. Call it the Patience Drug.  The first study in the late '70s found a definate relationship between suicide, drug addiction and crime. In counties in Texas with low or no lithium in the ground water crime was significantly higher. With everyone drinking bottled, filtered water no wonder mass shootings are on the rise.

If you are having trouble digesting fats, gall bladder symptoms etc, you are likely low in Choline.  Less than 10% of adults eating a western style diet meet Adequate Intake.  It and the B vitamins are low in Celiac Disease caused by malabsorption due to small intestine villi damage and foods avoidance.

[trents]

13 minutes ago, vero1014 said:

1.  

Antigliadin Abs, IgG

Deamidated Gliadin Abs, IgG01 Result: 2 units

 Negative 0 - 19

 Weak Positive 20 - 30

 Moderate to Strong Positive >30

 

t-Transglutaminase (tTG) IgA

t-Transglutaminase (tTG) IgA Result: <2 U/mL

 Negative 0 - 3

 Weak Positive 4 - 10

 Positive >10

 Tissue Transglutaminase (tTG) has been identified

 as the endomysial antigen. Studies have demonstr-

 ated that endomysial IgA antibodies have over 99%

 specificity for gluten sensitive enteropathy.

 

t-Transglutaminase (tTG) IgG

t-Transglutaminase (tTG) IgG01 Result: 8 High U/mL

 Negative 0 - 5

 Weak Positive 6 - 9

 Positive >9

So, you have a weak positive in one of the antibody tests for celiac disease, that being the tTG-IGG. That one is not as specific for celiac disease as the tTG-IGA or the EMA and a weak positive there could indicate NCGS (Non Celiac Gluten Sensitivity, which some experts believer can be a precursor to celiac disease) or another autoimmune condition. It is unfortunate that the physician did not order a total IGA test as low total IGA can cause false negatives in the tTG-IGA.

The results from the biopsy may provide some clarification as NCGS does not damage the SB villi, though it may not since it appears, if you do have celiac disease, you are in the early stages of it. Since testing for celiac disease is now complete I would recommend you trial the gluten free diet to see if symptoms improve. That usually requires significant education. Eating a low gluten diet is relatively easy as it just involves eliminating the major and obvious sources of gluten. Eating truly gluten free is much harder because of the ubiquity of wheat and barley ingredients in processed, pre-made food items. For instance, would you expect to find wheat in soy sauce. It's there. Read the ingredient label sometime. And it's in Campbell's tomato soup as a thickening agent. Eating truly gluten-free requires a lot of diligence and yet, even small amounts of gluten can keep the fires burning. And wheat starch is used as a filler in some pills. Here's a primer that may be helpful: