Positive Blood Work Question

[divamomma]

So my daughter's TTG IgA result was positive at 42 (wahtever that means) I am obsessing over whether this means she has celiac for sure while waiting for a biopsy. Are these likely accurate? Is it true false negatives are more common? What other reasons would there be for a high level of TTG IgA? Would a lower level be more iffy/unclear....her being 42 is that likely positive?? I think I have asked all of this before but I keep going over everything in my head. Waiting is hard and I wish I knew for sure.

[Gemini]

So my daughter's TTG IgA result was positive at 42 (wahtever that means) I am obsessing over whether this means she has celiac for sure while waiting for a biopsy. Are these likely accurate? Is it true false negatives are more common? What other reasons would there be for a high level of TTG IgA? Would a lower level be more iffy/unclear....her being 42 is that likely positive?? I think I have asked all of this before but I keep going over everything in my head. Waiting is hard and I wish I knew for sure.

Yes, your daughter most likely has Celiac Disease with those test results, I am afraid! That is fairly elevated for someone so young so the odds of it not being Celiac or a false positive is about nil. Usually there can be false negatives but not false positives.

I will warn you here......the biopsy could prove negative in the very young, even if she is a Celiac. It can take a long time for damage to become bad enough to show on the biopsy. If your doctor says the biopsy looks fine and not to go gluten-free, ignore them and start the diet immediately. Young children are hard to test because they aren't old enough for damage to have accumulated to see.

Not true in all cases but many kids (and adults) have a delayed diagnosis because of this. Your daughter is making antibodies to gluten...there's a problem brewing. Does she have many symptoms? Why was she tested in the first place?

[divamomma]

Thank you for your reply. She is constantly exhausted, cranky and hungry. She wants to eat all the time and generally just wants to lay around. I took her to the dr with those concerns. My dr ran bloodwork and decided to check for celiac. I guess I am glad she did!

[ravenwoodglass]

Thank you for your reply. She is constantly exhausted, cranky and hungry. She wants to eat all the time and generally just wants to lay around. I took her to the dr with those concerns. My dr ran bloodwork and decided to check for celiac. I guess I am glad she did!

Yea being diagnosed at her age will avoid a lot of health issues down the line. Do make sure that the rest of the family gets screened also even if they don't seem to have symptoms.