Duodenitis

[kim26]

My daughter was recently diagnosed wiyh celiac........based on my diagnosis of ibs and duodenitis about 4 years ago, her pediatric GI is "highly suspicious" and thinks i probably have it as well. I have had a blood test and it was negative.(my daughter's blood test was positive and her biopsy negative). My question is, how is duodenitis related to celiac/villi atrophy...if at all??? Thanks in advance!!!~K

[njbeachbum]

hey kim,

i'm 30 years old and had a positive blood test in november and positive biopsy in december. i was diagnosed with small intestinal crohn's disease 14 years ago after being very sick for about a year. i just recently started seeing a new gastro doctor who finally made the celiac connection. when he reviewed my prior medical records with me, he made the comment "well if you look here, it says that they saw most of the inflammation in the duodenum... this is very common in celiac disease". apparently in celiac patients, there are certain areas in the digestive tract that are most commonly affected by the autoimmune damage. so yeah, IBS symptoms and duodenal damage certainly points in the direction of celiac disease.

for me it was a relief to finally know that i was still symptomatic for a real reason. now the long road to recovery has begun.

best of luck to you and your daughter