Off Gluten-on Gluten Diagnosis

[RunnerNYC]

Hello,

I'm new to the board and was hoping someone could answer my question. I've been experiencing stomach discomfort for some time as well as malabsorption. I experimented with gluten-free for 3 weeks with some improvement. My GI doctor says to return to eating gluten and then go for several test (blood work, biopsy, etc.) I was just wondering if being off gluten for that time will make the results less accurate...Or, how long to I have to be back eating gluten before going for the tests?

Thanks so much!

[Rachel in NC]

Hello,

I'm new to the board and was hoping someone could answer my question. I've been experiencing stomach discomfort for some time as well as malabsorption. I experimented with gluten-free for 3 weeks with some improvement. My GI doctor says to return to eating gluten and then go for several test (blood work, biopsy, etc.) I was just wondering if being off gluten for that time will make the results less accurate...Or, how long to I have to be back eating gluten before going for the tests?

Thanks so much!

Hi,

I was wondering the same exact thing. My situation is a little different. I had a biopsy first, went on a gluten free diet and now my doctor wants me to eat gluten for 10 days and then have the blood test. He said it would throw off the results if I had no gluten within the last 2+ weeks. Has anyone else experienced this? Also how conclusive is the biopsy compared to the blood test? Thanks alot for everyones help.. I can notice a difference just today eating gluten. I feel bloated and very tired!

[Jestgar]

The antibodies will stay in your blood for several months after stopping gluten, although the exact amount of time isn't really clear. They should reappear almost immediately after starting to eat gluten again.

As for the biopsy, that's harder to answer. If you had minimal damage, it might have faded enough not to be seen and might take a long time to come back. Or it may be patchy and they could miss the bad spots no matter what.

If you need to have the biopsy done for whatever reason, do it now before going gluten free forever. People that have posted about doing gluten challenges after being gluten-free make it sound not very fun, and the damage might not return after a short gluten challenge anyway.

As to which is more accurate, there is no real answer to that. Either a postive blood test OR a positive biopsy means you have it. You don't need both. If your doc says your biopsy was positve, but he still wants a blood test, find out why.

Ultimately it's your body. If you feel crappy when you eat gluten, you have the power not to eat it.