Celiac Plus Testing...

[tama-chan]

Hello everyone,

While trying to sort out my abdominal pain/gas/constipation issues, my specialist finally approved for me to take the Celiac test. I recieved a paper in the mail a short while ago that has all the information for the "Celiac Plus" test. I was told prior to the testing by my regular doctor and nutrisionist that you need to have gluten/wheat in your body while the first blood work is done. When i arrived at the hospital labs, my specialist office called, telling me I needed to wait 10 days before getting the blood, or else it wouldn't work. Now I was completely confused and I needed to get the right answer from someone. Come to find out (later in the afternoon), that specialist WAS incorrect, and I was suppose to get the blood drawn while on the gluten prior to it. The lab used the blood and syrum and it got sent out yesterday.

Anyhow, I just couldn't believe that a specialist who works with celiac patients gave me the wrong info, and I tried clearing it up with the rest of the people who are trying to help me, to make the correct decision.

Now onto my question! (sorry kind of long ^^'):

How reliable is the Celiac Plus test? It says under it that it should check for 5 different things in the blood stream (hoping they do that at the main lab, because the hospital sure didn't; the place where they just took it for storage). I couldn't find any info on the net about the procudures, but I did do it correctly right? And that if it comes out negative, should I be concerned that it wasn't accurate? Also, should I do the 10 days = no gluten after I get these results back?

Thank you very much, and sorry for the long post again.

Chris

[tama-chan]

Hmmm... nobody?

[KaitiUSA]

I'm guessing this "celiac plus" test is the complete celiac panel of these 5 things:

Anti-Gliadin (AGA) IgA

Anti-Gliadin (AGA) IgG

Anti-Endomysial (EMA) IgA

Anti-Tissue Transglutaminase (tTG) IgA

Total Serum IgA

If that is the test...yes this is a good panel to get done. The best lab in the US for testing is Prometheus.

Do not go gluten free until after testing either

Sorry I didn't respond sooner I didn't see your post

[Jnkmnky]

Glad to hear Prometheus is the recommended test in the U.S. I and my two other children had our blood drawn today! I just put in a call to my dr because she and the nurse were confused as we were leaving. They thought I was supposed to take the kits with me and deliver them to the lab myself. Now I'm afraid they're going to screw it all up. I've been holding off going grain free *reading Dangerous Grains can have that effect on a person* until we got the tests done.

[julie5914]

Yes, hopefully the 5 tests are the ones Kaiti mentioned. You need to be eating gluten for these tests to be reliable, so if you had been eating gluten the 10 days prior to the test, it should be correct in its results. If you had been on a gluten-free diet prior to the test, it could skew the results, although I am not sure how much.

[tama-chan]

Thanks for the info everyone!

I had been eating wheat/guten prior to the testing, and did not stop eating it until right after the test. I'm not sure which lab it's getting sent to... thats why I'm kind of worried that they aren't going to understand that it's the "Full Celiac Plus" test, and may mess it up. I sure hope not!