Recently Diagnosed?

[Windsblw]

From about 6 years old I can remember having stomach pains. I have never really felt "healthy", I am not sure what healthy is "supposed" to feel so it may be relative. During my teenage years my stomach and all the other digestive anatomies below the stomach was always gassy, nervous, achy, pain and chronic GERDS, I knew something was wrong. Over the last 20 years ( I am now 34) I had seen multiple gastro doctors, internal doctor, and everyone else under the sun with nothing coming from it except prescriptions of prevacid or "you must have IBS". I on a few occasions I requested an endeoscopy with the usual "you don't need that your to young". After a while I just excepted It is what it is. Well it finally got so bad I saw a local Digestive Dr. and demanded I get that endeoscopy. With the 20 years of GERDs and my apparent distress about not being treated in the past he agreed. We was looking for ulcers and Barrettes disease so he did several biopsies, one of them in my duodenum. Everything came back mostly normal except "The overall villous architecture is distorted. The villi appear short and blunt. There is an increase in the number of chronic inflammatory cells with lamina propria. Crypt hyperplasia is also seen". SO the digestive dr. said it seems you might have Celiacs but we need to confirm with blood work. The blood work came back with equivocal on the ttg iga but on the gliadin iga it came back negative. I saw my GP who said she believed I was a celiac but the digestive doctor said I did not. I know blood test are very inaccurate but I am wondering which diagnosis should I listen to. I also have a very strange skin problem no Dermatologist can explain, and all my sister and aunt on one side of my Family have Hypothyroidism ( I know there could be a genetic component there). I would love to be more certain see as a celiac diet is a major change for me and family. Sorry for the belabored post.

Any input would be very welcome.

[curlyfries]

From about 6 years old I can remember having stomach pains. I have never really felt "healthy", I am not sure what healthy is "supposed" to feel so it may be relative. During my teenage years my stomach and all the other digestive anatomies below the stomach was always gassy, nervous, achy, pain and chronic GERDS, I knew something was wrong. Over the last 20 years ( I am now 34) I had seen multiple gastro doctors, internal doctor, and everyone else under the sun with nothing coming from it except prescriptions of prevacid or "you must have IBS". I on a few occasions I requested an endeoscopy with the usual "you don't need that your to young". After a while I just excepted It is what it is. Well it finally got so bad I saw a local Digestive Dr. and demanded I get that endeoscopy. With the 20 years of GERDs and my apparent distress about not being treated in the past he agreed. We was looking for ulcers and Barrettes disease so he did several biopsies, one of them in my duodenum. Everything came back mostly normal except "The overall villous architecture is distorted. The villi appear short and blunt. There is an increase in the number of chronic inflammatory cells with lamina propria. Crypt hyperplasia is also seen". SO the digestive dr. said it seems you might have Celiacs but we need to confirm with blood work. The blood work came back with equivocal on the ttg iga but on the gliadin iga it came back negative. I saw my GP who said she believed I was a celiac but the digestive doctor said I did not. I know blood test are very inaccurate but I am wondering which diagnosis should I listen to. I also have a very strange skin problem no Dermatologist can explain, and all my sister and aunt on one side of my Family have Hypothyroidism ( I know there could be a genetic component there). I would love to be more certain see as a celiac diet is a major change for me and family. Sorry for the belabored post.

Any input would be very welcome.

If you could post your results from the blood work, someone here could decipher them for you. Not all doctors know what they are doing when interpreting the results, which would explain the discrepancy between the two doctors.

But really, if you've got villous atrophy, you have the answer.

If you need more proof, you could get your rash biopsied. Just make sure the doctor knows to biopsy the area next to the rash, not the rash itself.

Last option is to try the diet out and see how you feel. Yes, it's a major change, but very do-able. And once you start feeling better, you'll never want to go back!

[Windsblw]

(tTg) Ab, IgA Results: 5 h

Reference Range

<5 Negative

5-8 Equivocal

>8 Positive

Gliadin Ab IgA Results: 6

Reference Range

<11 Negative

11-17 Equivocal

>17 Positive

Iga 263 81-463 mg/dl

Biopsy Results: "The overall villous architecture is distorted. The villi appear short and blunt. There is an increase in the number of chronic inflammatory cells with lamina propria. Crypt hyperplasia is also seen. This histology changes are non-specific. However, These changes may reflect early or partially treated celiac sprue, Bacterial overgrowth, Hypersensitivity reaction to non-gluten proteins, tropical sprue or protein calorie malnutrition. Clinical correlation is needed.

What do you think?