Please Help With Blood Test Results

[Amyleigh0007]

My son was diagnosed with Celiac a few months ago (both bloodwork and biopsy positive). I have have bowel issues all of my life and the symptoms seemed to have gotten much worse after the birth of my daughter 9 months ago. I thought I had found my answer and was fully expecting a positive dx. I had bloodwork done and everything came back negative. My TTG antibody was <3 (<5 negative, 5-8 equivocal, >8 positve reference range) and my IGA Serum is 179 (81-463 reference range). Can anyone tell me more about my results? I am not sure if I should drop it or pursue more tests. Thank you for your help!

[lizard00]

Welcome to the forum!!

Have you tried the gluten free diet? The number of people on here with negative bloodwork but either a diagnosis or positive results is pretty high. My bloodwork was negative, but I have Celiac.

It really is up to you at this point if you want to pursue it. If you try the diet, you skew your chances of an accurate result. But if you decide to pursue it, don't quit eating gluten for any length of time.

Are those two tests the only ones they did?

[nora-n]

The blood tests, especially ttg and EMA are really calibrated to be positive only in th most severe cases and are negative in 20% even then.

nora

[Rachel--24]

My son was diagnosed with Celiac a few months ago (both bloodwork and biopsy positive). I have have bowel issues all of my life and the symptoms seemed to have gotten much worse after the birth of my daughter 9 months ago. I thought I had found my answer and was fully expecting a positive dx. I had bloodwork done and everything came back negative. My TTG antibody was <3 (<5 negative, 5-8 equivocal, >8 positve reference range) and my IGA Serum is 179 (81-463 reference range). Can anyone tell me more about my results? I am not sure if I should drop it or pursue more tests. Thank you for your help!

I would pursue more testing. You were only tested for one antibody (tTG). Also, some people will have a positive biopsy despite negative bloodwork. I would request the Celiac panel.

The IgA Serum is to make sure that you're not IgA deficient.

As previously mentioned you could try the diet to find out if gluten is your problem....just be sure that you do not wish to pursue testing before you start the diet.

Genetic testing could also be useful as your son may have gotten his Celiac gene from his father.

[Amyleigh0007]

After my son was dx I stocked the kitchen with gluten-free food and that's what I was eating too, it was just easier for all of us to eat the same things. I did have some gluten each day, but for the most part I was gluten-free. I am afraid my gluten-free diet for those 10 weeks resulted in negative tests. Is that possible? I was not aware that cutting gluten before testing could result in negative tests until I started really reading posts from this website and others. By then it was too late. My family dr has referred me to a GI. I will talk to him about the pros and cons of more testing. Thank you for your help! I truly appreciate it.

[Rachel--24]

I am afraid my gluten-free diet for those 10 weeks resulted in negative tests. Is that possible?

Yes...you would have to be eating gluten in order for the tests to be accurate. If you take gluten out of your diet antibody levels go down. 10 weeks gluten-free can definately result in a false negative.