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Biopsy Before Blood Test?

JessieFree

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JessieFree Apprentice
JessieFree
Posted

I had a biopsy that came back positive then my GI gave me the blood test to confirm. I'm still waiting for the results I would think he would do the blood work first. I have a lot of the symptoms: gas, bloating, irritability, leg cramps, tingling. What's more reliable? I would hate to think I'm going gluten-free for nothing.

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Guest jj2gether4eva
Guest jj2gether4eva
Posted
I had a biopsy that came back positive then my GI gave me the blood test to confirm. I'm still waiting for the results I would think he would do the blood work first. I have a lot of the symptoms: gas, bloating, irritability, leg cramps, tingling. What's more reliable? I would hate to think I'm going gluten-free for nothing.

The same thing happened to me. I don't understand why the doctor did the biopsy first. Maybe to rule out many things at one time and narrow it down. The blood test for celiac only tests specifically for celiac and not for something else like crohn's. That's the only reason that I can think of.

happygirl Collaborator
happygirl
Posted

If you have a positive biopsy, then you have the gold standard diagnosis for Celiac.

He probably wasn't sure what you had, did an endoscopy to look for various things, one of which was Celiac.

lob6796 Contributor
lob6796
Posted
I had a biopsy that came back positive then my GI gave me the blood test to confirm. I'm still waiting for the results I would think he would do the blood work first. I have a lot of the symptoms: gas, bloating, irritability, leg cramps, tingling. What's more reliable? I would hate to think I'm going gluten-free for nothing.

You can go ahead and go gluten free. If you had a biopsy that came back positive, you HAVE celiac disease. Why he would do blood tests afterwards is beyond me, especially because your blood tests can come back negative even if you have celiac. 3% of all celiac's are IgA deficient so it will come out negative instead of positive. The biopsy is usually the last thing they do because it tells them 100% (if it is positive) that you have celiac.

sneezydiva Apprentice
sneezydiva
Posted
You can go ahead and go gluten free. If you had a biopsy that came back positive, you HAVE celiac disease. Why he would do blood tests afterwards is beyond me, especially because your blood tests can come back negative even if you have celiac. 3% of all celiac's are IgA deficient so it will come out negative instead of positive. The biopsy is usually the last thing they do because it tells them 100% (if it is positive) that you have celiac.

I'm still very new at this, in fact I don't even have my biopsy results back. But from what I've read, sometimes doctors do the blood test after the biopsy because if it is positive, then future blood tests can help determine whether the gluten free diet is working, or if the patient is unwittingly consuming hidden sources of gluten. It's obviously much less invasive than doing another endoscopy in the future.

lob6796 Contributor
lob6796
Posted
I'm still very new at this, in fact I don't even have my biopsy results back. But from what I've read, sometimes doctors do the blood test after the biopsy because if it is positive, then future blood tests can help determine whether the gluten free diet is working, or if the patient is unwittingly consuming hidden sources of gluten. It's obviously much less invasive than doing another endoscopy in the future.

She wanted to know which was more reliable and that her doctor was doing blood tests to "confirm" diagnosis. I was just telling her that blood tests are not needed to CONFIRM a diagnosis. A positive biopsy is a positive diagnosis, end of story. He *should* have done blood tests first, not second. That way once the biopsy was done, she could immediately go gluten free instead of having to wait possibly weeks after the biopsy. If blood tests are done first, you can get the results of those back while waiting for your biopsy appt since that often takes weeks to get in. Yes, in the future, blood tests can tell the doctor if your body is still reacting to gluten (if the diet is working effectively or not). She had already had the blood drawn for the blood test, so it is fine for her to go gluten free before hearing the results of the blood test. That isn't going to effect anything other than her feeling better.

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