Tough Question About Biopsy

[brizzo]

Okay, my dermatologist saw my rash and thought it might be something other than DH. My mom is Celiac, and a gluten-free diet totaly helps with my rash. Here's where it gets technical... In order to diagnose DH , I know that you need at least 1-2mm of surroung skin surface outside the eruption with immunoflouresence. My doc got the eruption in the biopsy sample AND about 1mm around it. She told me, (quote)

"I am going to run a standard biopsy on this with out immunoflouresence because immunoflouresence is so expensive. If anything comes back "odd" then I'll do a second biopsy with immunoflouresence. "

This is when I started to say to myself...here we go again,,,,another dip sh** MD.

Here's the question for all you pathologists out there. If it is DH and not whatever the Doc thinks this is. Will the lab be able to tell if it even "could" be DH without the immunoflouresence? I think she is testing for acne necrotic miliaris of the scalp.

Look guys, I am firmly aware of the whole immunoflouresence issue...so please don't send me a bunch of replies stating ,,,"you have to have immunoflouesence!!" I know , okay

My question is just how likely is the lab to even recognize that "the microbiology " appears to resemble DH ect..... Or something of that nature....

I'm realy looking for someone with a bit of mircobiology or pathology background here...

Anyways , I'm suppost to get test results in 2 days.... just curious as to the likelyhood of a false negative here...

I don't mean to sound anal, I'm just so tired of doctors jacking around with all this crap. Maybe I should buy my own microscope, immunoflouresence stain, and biopsy my damn self ....It would be cheaper!!! lol,,,just kidding....luv u guys, Brizzo

[floridanative]

Sorry I can't help but I can tell you that when I presented with a mystery rash over five years ago, the doc didn't do the biopsy right. They called and gave me the name (chronic dermatitus something) and gave me a steriod cream. The cream helped but of course did not make the rash go away. Fast forward to 8 months ago when I started the gluten-free diet. Just to see what would happen, I stopped using the cream. As you might imagine, it went away about two months into my new diet. No more expensive potentially harmful cream and no more rash. When I read in Dr. Green's book how the biopsy for DH should be performed, I knew that mine was not done correctly. I think your Dr. wasted your time and it's highly likely that it will come back with some other name, besides DH.

[Rusla]

I know that if they take from the affected area where the eruption is it will not come the way it should. I don't know why, just it will. I would tell dippy doc to do it from the outside not from the the eruption. Let's load up a truck and all head to the veterinarian.

[brizzo]

well, it came back as Mild superficial dermatitis..... Whatever that means.....I've had it for 3 damn years.....sorry Doc, but that ain't mild.....well, I ordered the entero lab stool test today.....this is my last resort!....wish me luck all.... b.