How Do I Read Blood Test?

[Dixie1]

Hello all,

So glad to have found this forum. My husband recently had bloodwork done after requesting from his primary doctor as he wants to diagnose or rule out Celiac. Here's the result:

EMA (IGA) negative

EMA Titer not performed due to TNP-Screening test Negative

TSH, 3rd Generation w/ reflex to FT4 2.14

Gliadin Antibody (IGA) 37 H

CBC were all in range

His doctor told him the result was a false positive but I don't know what this means. He referred him to a gastro for a endoscope. Can anyone interpret the results for me?

Thanks!

[mushroom]

Hello all,

So glad to have found this forum. My husband recently had bloodwork done after requesting from his primary doctor as he wants to diagnose or rule out Celiac. Here's the result:

EMA (IGA) negative

EMA Titer not performed due to TNP-Screening test Negative

TSH, 3rd Generation w/ reflex to FT4 2.14

Gliadin Antibody (IGA) 37 H

CBC were all in range

His doctor told him the result was a false positive but I don't know what this means. He referred him to a gastro for a endoscope. Can anyone interpret the results for me?

Thanks!

Hi, and welcome.

While I am not an expert on blood testing, your husband's doctor did not perform the full panel, which consists of:

Anti-Gliadin (AGA) IgA

Anti-Gliadin (AGA) IgG

Anti-Endomysial (EMA) IgA

Anti-Tissue Transglutaminase (tTG) IgA

Total Serum IgA

The total serum IgA is performed as a check because if that is low it can invalidate all the other results. His doctor performed the first and third test, but not the other three. The TSH is a thyroid test and of course CBC is a complete blood count. The gliadin IGA was positive.

In our book there is no such thing as a "false positive". There are often false negatives, but not positives. A positive is a positive. At least he referred him to a GI specialist for an endoscopy and biopsy. This doctor may or may not want to perform the full panel. Unfortunately, celiac testing is not as accurate as we would like it to be, either in blood work or in the 'scope, which relies on the skill of the doctor in recognizing which areas to biopsy because the damage in the small intestine can be patchy and it is such a large area. Make sure that he takes at least 5 or 6 samples from different areas to increase the chances of finding damage to the villi. Sometimes suspicious areas can be seen just through the scope but most often it takes a microscope to identify them. So, with that in mind, it is sometimes possible, unfortunately, to also have a false negative on the endoscopy. This would be discouraging for your husband, but there is another diagnostic tool available to him--a positive response to the diet.

Regardless of the results of his testing, he should give a gluten free diet a good two-month trial and see how he responds. He can start this as soon as he has had the endoscopy. This is because doctors are now starting to realize that there is such a thing as non-celiac gluten intolerance, which can give you the same symptoms and problems as celiac disease but does not show up on any testing.

Keep in touch and let us know the results of his endoscopy, and feel free to ask any additional questions you may have.

[nora-n]

Yes, teh antigliadin test is the old one, and whenever a new test comes they tell the doctors the old one was faulty and the new one is so much better.....

The antigliadin test is typically the first test to turn positive in early celiac. That is why they call it false positive. Because the ttg test has not turned positive yet.

Of course lots of celaics will have only one test positive, or even none. Even i total villous atrophy, 20% of people have totally negative blood tests.