Introduction & Start of Journey

[Arletta]

Hi there. I am a 59 yo colon cancer survivor - had chemo in 2020 and was just released from my oncologist's care a few weeks ago. The day of my release my annual blood tests showed that I was iron deficient anemic. (I get blood sugar and cholesterol checked by pcp every 6 months, but blood counts/platelets/hemoglobin is done annually by oncologist.) My pcp sent in a request for a stat colonoscopy to look for a leak in my GI system. Colonoscopy and endoscopy were both fine. Next week I'm doing a capsule endoscope. Gastro said he sent tissue for biopsy - I had just presumed that there were polyps again until I read the report he sent my pcp that said they were looking for celiacs. Looking at the list of symptoms, I have a lot of them. The neuropathy in my fingers and toes which I experienced during chemo had disappeared, but now its back. The arthritis in my fingers is flaring worse than ever (and its rare for it to flare when its 80 some degrees outside). My friend who had celiacs asked if I had a particular blood test yet - and I'm guessing they'll wait until the capsule results to do that. In the meantime I'm reading and getting ready. From what I've read so far, even if I don't have celiacs I think a reduction in gluten intake would do me some good.

[trents]

Welcome to the forum community @Arletta!

The blood tests for celiac disease check for certain antibodies produced by the inflammation that gluten ingestion causes in the lining of the small bowel of those who have the disease. Normally, the blood antibody testing comes before the endoscopy/biopsy but in your case the order was understandably reversed since they were doing the endoscopy for other reasons as well. What you need to know is that you should not cut back on gluten consumption before the blood draw to check for celiac antibodies. Doing so will likely reduce inflammation and thus reduce antibody levels and could result in false negatives. If anything, you should increase your consumption of wheat products in the meantime.

There are several antibody tests that can be performed when checking for celiac disease. The most popular one ordered by physicians is the tTG-IGA. Try talking your physician into ordering a more complete celiac panel, however, which would include total IGA, tTG-IGA, DGP-IGA and DGP-IGG. It's very important that the physician order the "total IGA" test as if total IGA is low it can result in falsely negative results in the tTG-IGA. Anemia can also give false negatives for the tTG-IGA. The tTG-IGA is the considered the chief antibody test for celiac disease. 

Here is a primer outlining the blood tests that can be run for celiac disease: 

 

[Arletta]

Thanks @trents. My friend mentioned the tTG-IGA test. As far as cutting back - my opinion during this is that I'm going to enjoy the gluten while I still can! Thanks for the feedback.