Negative Blood Test, But Is This Dh?

[scootRN]

I have just recently had a blood test for celiac that was negative, and am waiting to get a referral to a GI doctor to have a biopsy. I have pretty much all the symptoms of celiac, and am wondering if this rash I have is related.

I get a rash periodically on my fingers on both hands, and in the same places on each hand, and also on each elbow. They are red and swollen (so much so sometimes that I have trouble bending my fingers), and eventually raises into fluid filled blisters. They are very painful and itch like crazy. It takes forever for them to go away, and when they do, the area stays red for a long time, and I have a ton of scars on my fingers and elbows now from where they have been.

Does this sound like DH? I have read about it being on elbows, but I haven't seen very much about hands...and that is my main problem area.

[mushroom]

I have just recently had a blood test for celiac that was negative, and am waiting to get a referral to a GI doctor to have a biopsy. I have pretty much all the symptoms of celiac, and am wondering if this rash I have is related.

I get a rash periodically on my fingers on both hands, and in the same places on each hand, and also on each elbow. They are red and swollen (so much so sometimes that I have trouble bending my fingers), and eventually raises into fluid filled blisters. They are very painful and itch like crazy. It takes forever for them to go away, and when they do, the area stays red for a long time, and I have a ton of scars on my fingers and elbows now from where they have been.

Does this sound like DH? I have read about it being on elbows, but I haven't seen very much about hands...and that is my main problem area.

Those sound like classic DH symptoms. Make an appt. with a dermatologist to get a biopsy of an area next to a lesion to test for antibodies. (The biopsy must be from clear skin adjacent to an active lesion.) A diagnosis of DH is a diagnosis of celiac disease. Period.