Celiac Gene Test

[dandt45]

I will try to keep this short. I have suffered for sometime with severe diarrhea. the original diagnose was i had ibs. i went to a new doctor to get a physical and she notice the numerous "ring worm" type rash over my legs and trunk. After looking at my rash, (which has always been diagnosed with a tropical cream that did nothing to help. I have had them my whole life) she asked if i was allergic to gluten? i told her that as a baby i was allergic to wheat but i had out grown it. she then asked me several questions and then informed me about cleiac disease. she completed blood work that was looking for the gene only because she said that the other blood work is often times not a conclusive way to determine celiac. well long story some what short. I have a DQ2 gene. My question is...does that mean i have celiac? or that i could get it? I am a newbie and am still trying to absorb this in as well as protein since i am anemic! thank you so much for all your help!

[nasalady]

I will try to keep this short. I have suffered for sometime with severe diarrhea. the original diagnose was i had ibs. i went to a new doctor to get a physical and she notice the numerous "ring worm" type rash over my legs and trunk. After looking at my rash, (which has always been diagnosed with a tropical cream that did nothing to help. I have had them my whole life) she asked if i was allergic to gluten? i told her that as a baby i was allergic to wheat but i had out grown it. she then asked me several questions and then informed me about cleiac disease. she completed blood work that was looking for the gene only because she said that the other blood work is often times not a conclusive way to determine celiac. well long story some what short. I have a DQ2 gene. My question is...does that mean i have celiac? or that i could get it? I am a newbie and am still trying to absorb this in as well as protein since i am anemic! thank you so much for all your help!

Welcome! It sounds like you've come to the right place!

The gene test does not diagnose celiac disease. But all of your symptoms (diarrhea, rash, "wheat allergy", anemia) + the DQ2 gene are all consistent with celiac disease. There are other conditions which can cause these things (Lyme Disease, for example), though, and you should have them ruled out.

I'm no expert, but from what I've gathered here, HLA DQ2 and HLA DQ8 are the official "celiac" markers recognized by the American medical community (I'm DQ8); I've read on this forum that there are others recognized in Europe. Anyone who has one or the other (or both) has a greater probability of developing the disease than someone without them; it doesn't mean you already have it.

Wikipedia has some interesting articles on HLA DQ2 and DQ8; you might want to read them. Also, if you do a search for "DQ2" or "gene" on this forum you'll probably get more information than you can handle!

Generally doctors will do blood work plus a biopsy of the small intestine to try to determine whether or not a patient has celiac disease. The medical profession has been quite inflexible in the criteria for the diagnosis: many will not recognize it unless the biopsy shows significant damage to the villi, even when there are a multitude of symptoms absolutely SCREAMING celiac disease.

The good news is that there are a few doctors who are starting to "get it"; they understand that there may be various reasons that bloodwork and/or biopsies come out negative. Your doctor sounds like one of them! Has she told you to go on a gluten-free diet?

This is one way to find out whether you have celiac or gluten intolerance: just eliminate gluten from your diet and see how you feel in a few months. If your diarrhea has gone away or at least diminished, etc., you are clearly benefiting from the diet. Lots of people on this forum don't actually care whether or not they have official diagnoses because they feel better gluten free and that's really all that matters to them.

Many, many of us on this forum were previously told that we had "IBS"!

Good luck!

JoAnn

[lizard00]

Did your doctor run any celiac tests along with the gene panel? As the previous post says, having the gene puts you at risk, but doesn't necessarily mean that you have it. Although, it does sound like you have some celiac symptoms. I was diagnosed based on genetics and dietary response.

What was your doctor's recommendation?