Best Tests For Celiac?

[flisleshnitz]

Myself and my 2 daughters have been diagnosed with Celiac. Myself through a blood test and my two daughters through elimination diet and consensus by doctors that symptoms being gone when gluten was gone was good enough. However, my 12 yo has military health care and can get pretty much any test, his father and I are divorced and his father thinks I'm somehow faking 3 diagnosis. My 12 yo wants to get tested, his symptoms are similar to mine at that age. But he wants to do it definitively so his dad will have to believe it. Also, his doctor will pretty much order whatever tests we request, they do a lot of it in-house and send away for the rest. So I'd like to know, what do I ask for? What will most likely garner the best results without him having to end up with an endoscopy?

Thanks so much!

[mushroom]

Welcome to the forum. There are several tests that test for celiac disease, and it is possible to be positive on some and negative on others. So to cover all the bases, I would ask for a full celiac panel which consists of the following:

Anti-Gliadin (AGA) IgA

Anti-Gliadin (AGA) IgG

Anti-Endomysial (EMA) IgA

Anti-Tissue Transglutaminase (tTG) IgA

Deamidated Gliadin Peptide (DGP) IgA and IgG

Total Serum IgA

The last one is often missed and is important, since it is the control test for all the other IgA tests. If that result is below range then all the IgA tests are invalidated and they would have to do the IgG versions. Of the rest of the tests, the DGP is the most specific for celiac and is more sensitive in children than the other tests, according to Dr. Rodney Ford, a well-known pediatric GI who specializes in celiac.

[frieze]

Myself and my 2 daughters have been diagnosed with Celiac. Myself through a blood test and my two daughters through elimination diet and consensus by doctors that symptoms being gone when gluten was gone was good enough. However, my 12 yo has military health care and can get pretty much any test, his father and I are divorced and his father thinks I'm somehow faking 3 diagnosis. My 12 yo wants to get tested, his symptoms are similar to mine at that age. But he wants to do it definitively so his dad will have to believe it. Also, his doctor will pretty much order whatever tests we request, they do a lot of it in-house and send away for the rest. So I'd like to know, what do I ask for? What will most likely garner the best results without him having to end up with an endoscopy?

Thanks so much!

Remember that he needs to be eating a "full" gluten diet for at least e3 months before testing.

And that the endoscopy may still be required under that healthcare system.