Ttg Antigen Level 10

[Nizzy]

I just went to the GI doc on Friday (due to MANY symptoms of gluten intolerance/celiac disease for many years) and got my tests back on Tuesday. They took a blood and feces test. The nurse called me and told me everything was normal except for me tTg antibody test. She said the normal level was 5 and my level was a 10. She said that is very common for celiacs and told me the doc wants me to have an endoscopy.

Can anyone explain to me what this means? She didn't confirm or deny that had celiac disease...

I'm a college student and everyone knows what that means - I don't have much money to pay for medical expenses! I do have medical insurance but I will still get a bill that I'm not ready to pay.

I would like to do the biopsy but would good would it do?

Any advice or help would be much appreciated!

[pain*in*my*gut]

I just went to the GI doc on Friday (due to MANY symptoms of gluten intolerance/celiac disease for many years) and got my tests back on Tuesday. They took a blood and feces test. The nurse called me and told me everything was normal except for me tTg antibody test. She said the normal level was 5 and my level was a 10. She said that is very common for celiacs and told me the doc wants me to have an endoscopy.

Can anyone explain to me what this means? She didn't confirm or deny that had celiac disease...

I'm a college student and everyone knows what that means - I don't have much money to pay for medical expenses! I do have medical insurance but I will still get a bill that I'm not ready to pay.

I would like to do the biopsy but would good would it do?

Any advice or help would be much appreciated!

Well, here is the thing....you have abnormal bloodwork that could indicate that you have a disease that is causing damage to your body which could result in some pretty serious complications down the road if it goes untreated. The way I see it you have two options:

1) You could follow thru with further testing now and bite the financial bullet, and find out if you have Celiac disease or not. If you do, the rest of your family should be tested as well (mom, dad, siblings, children), and you could be saving them a lifetime of illness as well if they have it and don't know it.

2) Assume that you do have Celiac disease, and commit to a lifetime of eating gluten free. If you think that you can do this without confirmation that you do have Celiac, then this would be the least expensive way to go. Keep in mind that if you do go gluten free now, and decide down the road that you want further testing, you will have to do a gluten challenge (eat gluten again) for 3-6 months to have the biopsy. This is NOT fun.

If it were me, I would do the biopsy. I personally would never be able to stick the diet if I didn't know "for sure". But that is just me. You have to decide what is best for you. Do some research on Celiac and the testing. Learn everything you can about it, and then decide what you want to do.

Good luck!

[Nizzy]

Well, here is the thing....you have abnormal bloodwork that could indicate that you have a disease that is causing damage to your body which could result in some pretty serious complications down the road if it goes untreated. The way I see it you have two options:

1) You could follow thru with further testing now and bite the financial bullet, and find out if you have Celiac disease or not. If you do, the rest of your family should be tested as well (mom, dad, siblings, children), and you could be saving them a lifetime of illness as well if they have it and don't know it.

2) Assume that you do have Celiac disease, and commit to a lifetime of eating gluten free. If you think that you can do this without confirmation that you do have Celiac, then this would be the least expensive way to go. Keep in mind that if you do go gluten free now, and decide down the road that you want further testing, you will have to do a gluten challenge (eat gluten again) for 3-6 months to have the biopsy. This is NOT fun.

If it were me, I would do the biopsy. I personally would never be able to stick the diet if I didn't know "for sure". But that is just me. You have to decide what is best for you. Do some research on Celiac and the testing. Learn everything you can about it, and then decide what you want to do.

Good luck!

Thanks! I think I'm to follow through with the biopsy. I have it scheduled for the 31st of this month.

I got the official test results in the mail which further confused me. It said:

TTG Antibody, IgA: <1.0 Interpretation: Negative

TTG Antibody, IgG: 10.0 U/ml Interpretation: Positive

After doing some reading, I read that some people might not be able to produce the IgA antibody. And they also test for IgG.

If someone could explain this to me that would be great!

[Roda]

Some people have IgA deficiency which would render IgA testing invalid. So yes it is possible to be negative on one and positive on another. Did they do a total IgA? As for the biopsy, a negative result doesn't necessarily mean you don't have celiac. Reasons: caught it early enough and you don't have any damage/little damage, improper biopsy/not enough samples taken, inexperienced pathologist in interperting biopsy samples, or the damage is patchy and the samples in a damaged area were missed(can not tell villi damage by the naked eye). When you go for your biopsy request a min. of 6-8 samples or 8-11 as new research is stating. If your biopsy should come back negative you can always try the diet strictly for three months. After you could reintroduce it to see how you do. Your body will give you the answer.

I had a positive IgA tTg and positive small bowel biopsy. My youngest son last year had an elevated IgA tTg and I opted out of biopsy (he was almost 6 at the time). I chose not to do the scope/biopsy since I already had a diagnosis and his positive blood work. Also to further confirm celiac we did a gluten challenge on him after 4 1/2 months and it only lasted three days. He reacted horible. My oldest son has had repeated negative blood work even with celiac symptoms. His allergist wants him gluten free even if he is not a celiac as he feels that he could be gluten intolerent. Same treatment anyway. I decided to have him scoped before putting him gluten free. I'm waiting on the results now.

Since you are in college, a diagnosis may help you to be able to opt out of any required meal plans.

[Nizzy]

Thanks for the suggestion. I will definitely tell them I would like 8-11 samples. I'm pretty eager/anxious to get this done. I would very much like the get to the bottom of my issues.

I have been staying on my regular diet but have been monitoring my reaction to things that I have been eating. On Friday I had a muffin and was running to bathroom for the rest of the day. And on Saturday, I had pita bread and felt incredibly tired and bloated the next day. It does seem that my symptoms are related to eating gluten.

If simply cutting out gluten will make me feel better, I will be one VERY happy girl!