Just Received Test Results

[grannygogo]

I just received a copy of my blood test results from the lab today. My doctors have not yet called to let me know what they mean. I think I understand that I have tested in the normal range for both test for Celiacs and therefore I don't have the disease. Can someone out there help me ? I hate to wait till Monday. Here are my results and the ranges they have marked as normal.

Result Reference Range

IgA 247 [70-400] mg/dl

tTG IgA 4 [0-19] EU

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Terri

p.s. I have several symptoms.

[lizard00]

Welcome to the forum!!

Well, according to your blood work, your test is negative. HOWEVER, that doesn't mean you don't have Celiac. Testing can only confirm, not rule out, as the tests can be negative... mine were. Have you already tried the gluten-free diet? That can also have a bearing on the results of your test. If you haven't tried it, that's really the key. If it makes you feel better and improves your health, then you know to avoid it.

I want to add: There are many on here who believe that if you have a Ttg number at all, there is a reaction going on, and that in itself could be indicative of Celiac. That's still up for debate though... but the philosophy is: Having a little reaction to gluten is like being a little pregnant. You either react, or you don't.

[ravenwoodglass]

Yes you could still be celiac with a negative blood test. Up to 30% of us do show up negative on blood work, unfortunately. That negative result can result in years and years of deteriorating health before a doctor is smart enough to tell us to try the diet. Most will see that result and not look any furthur. If just one of the fancy specialists had told me to try the diet during all those years of repeated testing and repeated negatives my life and that of my children would have been quite different.

If you are planning on a biopsy then wait to go gluten-free but if you have finished with testing do try the diet for a few months strictly. That is the best test. You also could go with Enterolab, they can test for antibodies in the stool and although they technically don't diagnose you they can tell you if the antibodies are there. You wouldn't produce antibodies to a substance if your body does not see it as poison.

[leadmeastray88]

I'm not very good at test results, but something else you might want to consider is that they didn't do the complete Celiac panel. Here's all the tests they should have run:

EMA (Immunoglobulin A anti-endomysium antibodies)

AGA (IgA anti-gliadin antibodies)

AGG (IgG anti-gliadin antibodies)

tTGA (IgA anti-tissue transglutaminase)

Looks like they only did the AGA and tTGA for you.

The purpose of the other tests is to rule out the fact that you may be IgA deficient (which means you can't produce enough IgA antibodies) therefore skewing the results.

Before going gluten free, you may want to ask for these tests first just to be sure.

Then, I would try a strict gluten free diet for a few months and see what happens. Some people find that cutting out dairy and/or soy for the first bit is helpful also.

Good luck and welcome!

Kim

[nora-n]

I too had anumber on ttg-test. I had been low-gluten before that for months. Thinking back I think it is significant.

I am planning on getting a positive DH test instead, but I might have to wait until I get glutened so mudh that I break out with a DH rash. I had a biopsy for DH, but it was takenwhen I did not have an outbreak.

The Ttg-tests are calibrated to only be positive when the villi are severly damaged, so negative tests are common becasue they are very much concerned about tests being specific, so they set an extremely high cutoff.

There was an article here on celic.com about some cientits sending out blood samples of confirmed celiacs to different labs, and half of the labs said the tests were negative.....

You might want to ask for the rest of the celiac tests, like antigliadin, which is widely available but they say more people test positive on that one, so they wanto avoid it becasue they do not want to diagnose so many patients and put them on this "horrible" diet...

(In longitudinal studies, they tested relatives of diagnosed celiacs over many years and they first had positive antigliadin tests, then positive ttg tests, and then they had positive biopsies)

You could also get a gene test, either private in case they use it against you if you are not DQ2 or 8, or through the doctor.

nora