Questions About Test Results

[bertcathey4]

So... I went to my GI doctor in march to see if he could find out why my liver enzyme tests were elevated. He ran a battery of blood tests and a few weeks later I went back to him for the results. He told me that my cholesterol was high(28 years old) and the tTG - IgA/IgG came back a little high. Normal, according to him, is < 10 and mine was 12. He wanted me to go on a gluten free diet for 6 weeks and then recheck my bloodwork. I have an appt with him in about 2 weeks and I still haven't started the diet. Does anyone think just because my test came back 2 points above normal that I could have celiac disease? Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[maile]

hi there and welcome to the forum! You've come to a good place for information and support.

Testing positive for celiac is like testing positive for pregnancy, there are no "false positives" (although with celiac there are plenty of false negatives)

if you are showing positive on a blood test then your body is having an autoimmune reaction to gluten, meaning your body is attacking itself. For celiacs this traditionally means damage to the small intestine causing bloating, problems with bowel movements (D or C), sometimes pain. Or it could affect you in the brain, causing a feeling of "brain fog", anxiety, lack of co-ordination etc.

You may not feel the symptoms, or perhaps you do and have always considered it "normal", but if you are celiac as long as you continue to consume gluten you will be doing damage to yourself.

You may want to try going gluten free for the next 2 weeks before you appointment just to see how your body reacts. the easiest way to do this at the beginning is to eat very simply, meats, fish, poultry, rice, potato, veggies and fruit; keep the spices to a minimum and make sure to read the labels to see if there are any obvious gluten ingredients (wheat, rye, barley, spelt, for some: oats) some typical foods to watch out for are soy sauce (wheat); quaker rice cakes, processed hams and prepared soups (including broth).

good luck!

[nora-n]

It is totally wrong and against all guidelines for your doctor to ask you to try going gluten-free. You should have been sent to a biopsy of the small intestine.

If you go gluten-free, it will certainly make diagnosis slmost impossible, and you must go back on gluten for several months, and then still the biopsy might be negative. The villi heal that much in a few weeks, and then it may take many months on gluten to make enlugh damage to cause postiive biopsies.

Elevated liver enzymes are common in celiac.

nora

norway

[bertcathey4]

Thanks for all the info. No offense maile, but I read somewhere that the tTG - IgA/IgG blood test is not a definitive test for celiac disease. I ordered the gluten sensitivity stool panel complete test from Enterolab and after an agonizing 3 week wait, I finally received the results.

Fecal Anti-gliadin IgA----- 15 Units (normal <10)

Fecal Anti-tissue Transglutaminase IgA----- 8 Units (normal <10 Units)

Quantitative Microscopic Fecal Fat Score----- <300 Units (normal <300 Units)

So I guess that I have no choice but to go gluten free. I also told my parents that they should get since gluten sensitivity is a genetic disorder.