How Accurate At The Anti-body Tests?

[Woolygimp]

Are these tests the golden standard, or are there any (or many) cases of false negatives?

I'm suffering from textbook Celiac conditions, and there are many people in my immediate family with the same thing. Still waiting on the results for my DH test, but the anti-body tests were definitely negative.

[NoGluGirl]

Are these tests the golden standard, or are there any (or many) cases of false negatives?

I'm suffering from textbook Celiac conditions, and there are many people in my immediate family with the same thing. Still waiting on the results for my DH test, but the anti-body tests were definitely negative.

Dear Woolygimp,

I was told by my holistic physician they tend to have false negatives for the blood tests. I would not go by the results. I had them done in 2000. We paid $300 for it to be analyzed by a special lab. Many people on here rave about Enterolab, where they do a full Celiac panel where they test your stool for antibodies. Members said they tested negative in blood tests, but positive in the Enterolab testing. The panel tests for Celiac, gluten intolerance, casein sensitivity, soy sensitivity, and egg sensitivity as well as malabsorption, and the Celiac and gluten intolerant genes. It is $380 for the whole thing. If I could afford it, I would get it done! I do not have insurance.

Sincerely,

NoGluGirl

[Fiddle-Faddle]

Are these tests the golden standard, or are there any (or many) cases of false negatives?

I'm suffering from textbook Celiac conditions, and there are many people in my immediate family with the same thing. Still waiting on the results for my DH test, but the anti-body tests were definitely negative.

It depends on which tests are run, and who reads them. My IgG was ridiculously high which definitely indicates a problem with gluten, but the doctor who ordered the tests said that they were negative. Later, my endocrinologist read them, and said it definitely was celiac. Go figure.

It also depends how much gluten you were eating at the time of the test. I believe you need to be consuming 4-5 pieces of bread a day for several months before having blood drawn.

And yes, there ARE false negatives.

If you try the gluten-free diet and see tremendous improvement, that seems like it would be a far better diagnostic tool than anything else.

Anyway, welcome to the board!

[gfp]

Basically any test has always got a bias....

It will lean over to false negative or false positive... because of the way tests are designed...

If you cross the road and look both ways its a test... but it doesn't mean you didn't miss something... however mostly (unless you are hallucinating) if you see a big bus it means there is a big bus....

Hence this test is a false negative bias....

If you get back from vacation on the beath and you check your clothes for sand .. same sorta thing... I guess we have all done this and then a week later found some

Again if you found sand then it confirms it there... but not finding it just meant you didn't identify/see it...

The celiac test suite tends towards false negative... its not that common but it happens and as fiddle-faddle points out its largely subjective anyway...one specialist might say negative and another positive ???

On top of all this we influence the results ourselves....

Firstly if your not eating gluten the test will be negative....

If your not eating a lot it might tend towards negative.... certainly enough for one specialist to call it negative while another might call it positive.

Finally the tests should be taken as a suite, together.... not just one of the tests....

[ravenwoodglass]

If you read my signature that kind of says it all. Try the diet, strictly for a bit no matter how the tests come out.