Help With Results Please

[Kase]

hi everyone,

i've been reading a lot here recently, lots of really helpful info & i'm hoping it's okay to ask for your advice. i've never considered myself as unwell at all, but in hindsight have had what i think of as minor problems for years, migraines, gi issues (recently diagnosed as IBS), stomach cramps, nosebleeds, bad skin (despite being post teenage! (41 to be precise)), chronic depression. it never occured to me that these could all be related, but my boss who has been dignosed with different allergies & intolerances recently told me they could be if i was gluten sensitive. so as my dr dismissed the idea recently i did the enterolab testing & this is what came back:

Fecal Anti-gliadin IgA: 22 Units

Fecal Anti-tissue Transglutaminase IgA: 20 Units

Quantitative Microscopic Fecal Fat Score: Less than 300 Units

Fecal Anti-casein (cow's milk) IgA: 8 Units

HLA-DQB1 Molecular analysis, Allele 1: 0501

HLA-DQB1 Molecular analysis, Allele 2: 0602

Serologic equivalent: HLA-DQ 1,1 (Subtype 5,6)

Interpretation of Fecal Anti-gliadin IgA (Normal Range is less than 10 Units): Intestinal antigliadin IgA antibody was elevated, indicating that you have active dietary gluten sensitivity.

Interpretation of Fecal Anti-tissue Transglutaminase IgA (Normal Range is less than 10 Units): You have an autoimmune reaction to the human enzyme tissue transglutaminase, secondary to dietary gluten sensitivity.

Interpretation of Quantitative Microscopic Fecal Fat Score (Normal Range is less than 300 Units): Provided that dietary fat is being ingested, a fecal fat score less than 300 indicates there is no malabsorbed dietary fat in stool indicating that digestion and absorption of nutrients is currently normal.

Interpretation of Fecal Anti-casein (cow's milk) IgA (Normal Range is less than 10 Units):

Interpretation Of HLA-DQ Testing: Although you do not possess the main HLA-DQB1 genes predisposing to celiac sprue (HLA-DQB1*0201 or HLA-DQB1*0302), HLA gene analysis reveals that you have two copies of a gene that predisposes to gluten sensitivity (any DQ1, DQ2 not by HLA-DQB1*0201, or DQ3 not by HLA-DQB1*0302). Having two copies of a gluten sensitive gene means that each of your parents and all of your children (if you have them) will possess at least one copy of the gene. Two copies also means there is an even stronger predisposition to gluten sensitivity than having one gene and the resultant immunologic gluten sensitivity may be more severe.

so..i'm reading this as being gluten sensitive, but not celiac?? does that mean it can't develop into celiac or that the risk potential of that is low. will eating gluten free prevent or make it less likely of developing into celiac??? i guess i don't really understand whether gluten senstivity & celiac are 2 different (but similar) conditions.....or the same condition but at opposite ends of the spectrum? or is it a grey area? am i making any sense at all? guess i'm kind of confused.....

i'm tempted to just go gluten free & see how things improve or is there some thing here that shows i should go back to my dr?

can anyone help me?

thank you in advance...

[farmwife67]

hi everyone,

i've been reading a lot here recently, lots of really helpful info & i'm hoping it's okay to ask for your advice. i've never considered myself as unwell at all, but in hindsight have had what i think of as minor problems for years, migraines, gi issues (recently diagnosed as IBS), stomach cramps, nosebleeds, bad skin (despite being post teenage! (41 to be precise)), chronic depression. it never occured to me that these could all be related, but my boss who has been dignosed with different allergies & intolerances recently told me they could be if i was gluten sensitive. so as my dr dismissed the idea recently i did the enterolab testing & this is what came back:

Fecal Anti-gliadin IgA: 22 Units

Fecal Anti-tissue Transglutaminase IgA: 20 Units

Quantitative Microscopic Fecal Fat Score: Less than 300 Units

Fecal Anti-casein (cow's milk) IgA: 8 Units

HLA-DQB1 Molecular analysis, Allele 1: 0501

HLA-DQB1 Molecular analysis, Allele 2: 0602

Serologic equivalent: HLA-DQ 1,1 (Subtype 5,6)

Interpretation of Fecal Anti-gliadin IgA (Normal Range is less than 10 Units): Intestinal antigliadin IgA antibody was elevated, indicating that you have active dietary gluten sensitivity.

Interpretation of Fecal Anti-tissue Transglutaminase IgA (Normal Range is less than 10 Units): You have an autoimmune reaction to the human enzyme tissue transglutaminase, secondary to dietary gluten sensitivity.

Interpretation of Quantitative Microscopic Fecal Fat Score (Normal Range is less than 300 Units): Provided that dietary fat is being ingested, a fecal fat score less than 300 indicates there is no malabsorbed dietary fat in stool indicating that digestion and absorption of nutrients is currently normal.

Interpretation of Fecal Anti-casein (cow's milk) IgA (Normal Range is less than 10 Units):

Interpretation Of HLA-DQ Testing: Although you do not possess the main HLA-DQB1 genes predisposing to celiac sprue (HLA-DQB1*0201 or HLA-DQB1*0302), HLA gene analysis reveals that you have two copies of a gene that predisposes to gluten sensitivity (any DQ1, DQ2 not by HLA-DQB1*0201, or DQ3 not by HLA-DQB1*0302). Having two copies of a gluten sensitive gene means that each of your parents and all of your children (if you have them) will possess at least one copy of the gene. Two copies also means there is an even stronger predisposition to gluten sensitivity than having one gene and the resultant immunologic gluten sensitivity may be more severe.

so..i'm reading this as being gluten sensitive, but not celiac?? does that mean it can't develop into celiac or that the risk potential of that is low. will eating gluten free prevent or make it less likely of developing into celiac??? i guess i don't really understand whether gluten senstivity & celiac are 2 different (but similar) conditions.....or the same condition but at opposite ends of the spectrum? or is it a grey area? am i making any sense at all? guess i'm kind of confused.....

i'm tempted to just go gluten free & see how things improve or is there some thing here that shows i should go back to my dr?

can anyone help me?

thank you in advance...

You are correct in thinking you are gluten sensitive, but do not have celiac disease. I do not believe it can develop into celiac disease, which simply means it won't destroy the villi in your intestine and you won't get DH (rash). However, there are many other autoimmune diseases that it can cause. Your symptoms could very well be from eating gluten. I would definitely go gluten free. I have very similar results and I know as soon as I ingest gluten because I get constipation. I do have the celiac gene also but the rest of my results are very similar. It won't hurt anything to try going gluten free. It really isn't that hard, especially if you eat at home. Eating out is tough because you can't see what is going on in the kitchen. (cross contamination) You have found a great place for answers to all of your questions right here.

[Kase]

You are correct in thinking you are gluten sensitive, but do not have celiac disease. I do not believe it can develop into celiac disease, which simply means it won't destroy the villi in your intestine and you won't get DH (rash). However, there are many other autoimmune diseases that it can cause. Your symptoms could very well be from eating gluten. I would definitely go gluten free. I have very similar results and I know as soon as I ingest gluten because I get constipation. I do have the celiac gene also but the rest of my results are very similar. It won't hurt anything to try going gluten free. It really isn't that hard, especially if you eat at home. Eating out is tough because you can't see what is going on in the kitchen. (cross contamination) You have found a great place for answers to all of your questions right here.

thank you farmwife. that's kind of what i thought but i needed someone else to confirm it too. i wasn't really expecting the result to come back positive for gluten sensitivity so spent the first few days after getting my results kind of in a slightly disbelieving haze. getting my head around it now. i don't really use processed food very much anyway, so as long as i work out the substitutions i think i'll be good. plan to sort out the kitchen today. i think the hardest part will be hubby, he is incredibly supportive & happy go gluten-free at home - but he does like to eat out on days off, nothing fancy but i think this will be our biggest challange.

[Korwyn]

I have to partially disagree. With the elevated tTg levels (low though they may be) this indicates a gluten mediated auto-immune antibody. So you have both gliadin antibodies AND gliadan mediated tissue anti-bodies. While this does not necessarily mean you have or would be diagnosed with celiac disease via biopsy, it strongly indicates that you need to consider that you may indeed have it and, unless you are willing to do a full gluten challenge and biopsy treat it as such.

Additionally HLA-DQ5 has been linked with Crohn's. HLA-DQ6 has been linked to Parkinson's. In a couple of different studies and cases both of these particular manifestations responded well to gluten-free diets.

[Kase]

I have to partially disagree. With the elevated tTg levels (low though they may be) this indicates a gluten mediated auto-immune antibody. So you have both gliadin antibodies AND gliadan mediated tissue anti-bodies. While this does not necessarily mean you have or would be diagnosed with celiac disease via biopsy, it strongly indicates that you need to consider that you may indeed have it and, unless you are willing to do a full gluten challenge and biopsy treat it as such.

Additionally HLA-DQ5 has been linked with Crohn's. HLA-DQ6 has been linked to Parkinson's. In a couple of different studies and cases both of these particular manifestations responded well to gluten-free diets.

i really don't know enough about all this yet......feel like i have only a grasp on a tiny bit of it. excuse my ignorance....i am guessing that the tTg levels are the Anti-tissue Transglutaminase?? & you're saying that this with the Anti-gliadin IgA levels i have still does not entirely rule out celiac?? even with the genes i have???

is the full challenge going gluten-free for a time & then reintroducing gluten? (is that something you just do on your own?) biopsy i guess i would have to pester my dr about (are there bloods first???).........have not had any official dr testing done; just got told on my most recent visit that i had chronic depression (pull yourself together woman!!!) & IBS.....thats when i sent off to enterolab instead....

is it wise to try & get a proper dr diagnosis? do people find that helpful? is there an advantage to going for an official medical diagnosis? at this moment i am up for gluten-free - but if i do, then that would affect any dr testing? is that right?