How Accurate Are Celiac Blood Screens?

[Jane-MomfromMN]

Hi-

A newbie here. After an insane fall and winter.... several periods of diarrhea (sometimes 8-12 days long) and also discovering that our daughter, at one point had C-Diff I begged my doctor to do more tests. He called me after a week and said that my daughter's blood screen came back positive for Celiac. She turned one in Jan so she is 17 months now. The doctor told me the test is 85%-90% accurate. We have to wait several weeks to see a Pediatric GI specialist but I of course have a million questions before then. Can anyone help?

1. What can we expect to happen at the GI appt?

2. Do you know what could cause a false positive on the blood screen?

Currently my daughter

[happygirl]

Find out what Celiac tests were run, post the results and the reference range. (best to get a copy for your own files)

If she is positive on tTG or EMA, those are the two "best" tests for Celiac. But, the WHOLE panel should have been run.

Her symptoms and test scores, to me, sound like she has a problem with gluten.

False negatives are more common than false positives.

check out : www.celiacdiseasecenter.columbia.edu and read ... great site.

best of luck.

[gf4life]

There is a lot of confusion regarding the accuracy of the blood tests. The issue is very confusing in regards to the medical community. They seem to disagree a lot! I had one GI tell me that they had more false positives and that fasle negatives were unheard of. This is the opposite of reality.

In reality, if you test positive then you have Celiac, if you test negative then you might still have Celiac...There are too many factors that could have caused a false negative. So if your daughter already tested positive, then she is having a reaction to gluten and is going to need the diet. You should probably wait until you get her to the Pedi GI, since they might want to do a few more tests and she would need to be on gluten for those. But you can start collecting information that will make it an easier transition once you do start the diet for her. Also you and her father might want to get tested since it is genetically passed to the child.

[gf4life]

sorry, it accidentally posted twice....