Low Iga Serum In Child

[selah7]

My daughter (8 yrs old) has allergies to nuts, orange juice and various animals. She is lactose intolerant. She has asthma. When she was 3 she was diagnosed with atypical mycobacterial infection. She had to have her lymph node drained and was on antibiotics for 3 months. At age 5, she had tonsils and adenoids removed

She has been very pale. This was something we experienced prior to having tonsils and adenoids removed. She has been very cranky and tired. Her asthma has become worse. She has been sick for quite a few days since school started in September. After visiting our doctor, she ran blood tests. Her vitamin D was low, her B12 and folate were very high. The doctor decided to run celiac disease tests.

Here are the results:

tTG-IgA 1.6

EMA-IgA <0.1

AGA-IgA 2.3

AGA-IgG 3.1

Total serum IgA 53

Her doctor was concerned with the low serum IgA. She is currently speaking with to a pathologist to review this.

My concern is that her tests results for celiac are invalid because of the low serum IgA. Also could she have deficient IgA, another autoimmune type disease?

I appreciate any info and clarification.

[psawyer]

It is difficult to interpret results without having the reference ranges. They vary from lab to lab.

A low overall serum IgA calls the other IgA results into question. They may be falsely negative if the immune system is deficient.

I can't comment on why the total IgA would be low--that is outside my knowledge.

[alexx6520]

do you have the reference ranges?

[Marlie]

More people who have Celiac Disease are IgA deficient than those who are not. My child's total IGA was in the 60's and tested negative on the tTG and EMA. The other tests you ran she did not have but rather the Deamidiated Glidian Peptide DGP IgA and IgG which both came out positive especially the IgG.

So you got me interested in the IgA deficiency as to what it really means and this is what I came up with. Complications of an IgA deficiency include Celiac, Lupus and RA. Individuals with an IgA deficiency can have no symptoms or have symptoms that include sinusitis, brochitis, chronic diarrhea, pneumonia, infections of the throat, skin infections,thrush, allergies, asthma.

Thanks for pondering the IgA deficiency question. I've learned something new.

[cassP]

ditto on the reference ranges... i am iga deficient- scored twice at a 60... but that's below range for an adult. i think the range for a child is lower- but i dont know the exact number.

as long as i eat right, and take all my right supplements- im usually healthier than most people. well... scratch that- i am pretty healthy- but i do have to eat perfectly, take all my supplements and probiotics to stay on course.

i did not have asthma or allergies as a kid- but i had ear infections & tubes put in my ears.. and i had a tonsilectomy & adenoidectomy.. and i was the only one of my 3 siblings to succumb to the chicken pox.

concerning your child's celiac panel- from what i hear on this panel- false negatives are more common in children- maybe cause there hasnt been enough damage done... by the time i had my celiac panels at age 36- they were still very WEAK positives

good luck!

[AtticusMom]

My daughter (8 yrs old) has allergies to nuts, orange juice and various animals. She is lactose intolerant. She has asthma. When she was 3 she was diagnosed with atypical mycobacterial infection. She had to have her lymph node drained and was on antibiotics for 3 months. At age 5, she had tonsils and adenoids removed

She has been very pale. This was something we experienced prior to having tonsils and adenoids removed. She has been very cranky and tired. Her asthma has become worse. She has been sick for quite a few days since school started in September. After visiting our doctor, she ran blood tests. Her vitamin D was low, her B12 and folate were very high. The doctor decided to run celiac disease tests.

Here are the results:

tTG-IgA 1.6

EMA-IgA <0.1

AGA-IgA 2.3

AGA-IgG 3.1

Total serum IgA 53

Her doctor was concerned with the low serum IgA. She is currently speaking with to a pathologist to review this.

My concern is that her tests results for celiac are invalid because of the low serum IgA. Also could she have deficient IgA, another autoimmune type disease?

I appreciate any info and clarification.

Hello,

I have to say I'm kind of in shock. My son was diagnosed with atypical mycobacterial infection last spring and this past December we were also told that he has Celiac Disease. I've never met or talked to anyone with these same issues, but I personally think these two problems are linked for my son. Can you tell me a little bit about the MAC infection that your daughter had and how it has healed?

Thank you,

L

[mushroom]

Reading material I was given does seem to indicate a link between mycobaterial infections and celiac. I had a severe mycoplasma infection in 1989 and was ill for a couple of months with raging fevers and chills, iritis, generalized severe flu symptoms. (Ha, looking back, I have had so many possible triggers for celiac, although remain self-diagnosed ) I made a full recovery from my infection though my eyes have never been the same since (they had to be dilated two or three times to make sure that scar tissue didn't deposit as I was healing.

I hope your son is doing well