Lots Of Questions About Recent Lab Results

[Mrs. M.]

I am new to this forum and am looking for help with my recent lab results. My doctor tells me I have celiac disease based on two blood results (that's all that was done):

TTG IgA: normal

TTG IgG 1.41 (standard <0.9)

One of my questions (apart from the bigger question of whether I really have celiac disease (see my first post) is whether this IgG result is relatively low for a person with Celiac disease, and whether that might mean that if I have Celiac disease, it is not too advanced. Do the levels sometimes get really high, and does that mean that the disease progression is more severe?

My doctor isn't recommending any more testing at this point. Should I be asking for a biopsy? I have started a gluten-free diet and feel better already, only a few days into it. But maybe that's all in my head. Can you feel effects this quickly?

thanks for any advice as I wait THREE MORE DAYS for a doctor's appt. Sigh.

[Ginger7]

As I'm sure others will note, if you want to know how your intestines look, you need an endoscopy and your GI will take 6-8 samples to detect and confirm celiac. You have to be eating gluten, as your intestines can begin the healing process quickly and therefore make any biopsies falsely negative. I don't know how long a few days or weeks gluten free would make on biopsy results. I guess it depends on what you want and how far you are willing to go to get answers of whether simply going gluten free is enough for you personally. There are also additional blood tests you could obtain (while on gluten containing diet).