Questioning Diagnosis

[ILOVEOMC]

Hi,

This is my first post after lurking here for several months. I am impressed by the people here and have learned alot. My guestion is about my child . After stomach hurting for several months the Dr. did a scope and biopsy and diagnosed Celiac based on the findings. The only problem I have is that the week before the scope and biopsy he had the stomach flu with fever and I wonder if that could have made the findings look like Celiac. They did blood work following this and the only elevation was the anti gliadin IGa . Only up a little. 5.4 from the acceptable 5.0. Hope you all can shed some light on this and help us out. Thanks!

[KaitiUSA]

That would not cause a biopsy to come positive for celiac if it was not. Your child does have celiac. A positive biopsy does not lie...there is clearly indication of damage which says the gluten is destroying his intestines. A stomach flu would not cause damage like that.

[ILOVEOMC]

Thanks Kaiti,

I wonder why his blood tests didn't show more elevations then only that one. Do you have any idea? He has been on th e gluten-free diet for several months now and the tummy aches have gotten a lot better. Now my daughter is complaining of her tummy all the time so I think....here we go again. I love this board though and look forward to being a member.

[KaitiUSA]

Some tests are more accurate then others, some labs are better. There can be a lot of factors to why the blood tests did not show extremely elevated levels. The fact that he has damage though gives it away that he has celiac. I am glad he has been feeling better. Welcome to the board

[swittenauer]

My husband was just told by looking at his blood tests that he has celiac but they are giving him a biopsy & colonoscopy next week. They said they are checking for Crohn's disease. Is that normally associated with celiac? I feel totally in the dark on this topic.

[KaitiUSA]

My husband was just told by looking at his blood tests that he has celiac but they are giving him a biopsy & colonoscopy next week.  They said they are checking for Crohn's disease.  Is that normally associated with celiac?  I feel totally in the dark on this topic.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Crohns can be associated with it. They are probably just checking to rule it out. I was also checked for that. Do you know what blood tests he had? some blood tests are very accurate. A biopsy can be good for ruling in celiac but it can't rule celiac out. If there is little or no damage yet it will come back negative so be prepared for that.

[Merika]

A little over the #s is over the numbers. Mine was over the adult limit by maybe 2 or 3, my mom's was over by about 30. It all means positive. I felt sicker than she did, and have been having major celiac problems for longer than her.

Welcome to the board

Merika

[ILOVEOMC]

Thank you Merika for sharing your numbers and advice. There are still times I wonder if he really has celiac disease but they think he was just starting it and we caught it early and maybe that is why the numbers were only slightly elevated. It helps to have you "experts" keep us on the straight and healthy narrow.