Celiac?

[WynPeters]

I have had unexplained symptoms that seemed completely unrelated for almost 20 years and then recently I had surgery and became extremel ill afterwards with intestinal pain and other issues. My doctor tested me for gall bladder issues and it came back as normal and then he sent me to a GI doctor who ran a celaic panel and these were the results. He wants to do a colonoscopy and an endoscopy in two weeks but I am confused by the information and am not sure if a biopsy is truly necessary. Can anyone explain what these results mean?

Component TTG Ab,IgA Gliadin DGP Ab IgA IgA

Your Value 14.0 8.3 114

Standard Range <7.0 - <7.0 - 87 - 474

Units U/mL U/mL mg/dL

Flag H H

Negative <7.0

Equivocal 7.0-10.0

Positive >10.0

Glucose 115 70-100 mg/dL H

Lymphocyte % 24 26.0-46.0 % L

T3 169 87-167 ng/dL H

Free T4 0.79 0.8-1.80 ng/dL L

TSH 0.57 0.34-4.82 uIU/mL

I am curious on what this all means. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Heather Peters

[beachbirdie]

I have had unexplained symptoms that seemed completely unrelated for almost 20 years and then recently I had surgery and became extremel ill afterwards with intestinal pain and other issues. My doctor tested me for gall bladder issues and it came back as normal and then he sent me to a GI doctor who ran a celaic panel and these were the results. He wants to do a colonoscopy and an endoscopy in two weeks but I am confused by the information and am not sure if a biopsy is truly necessary. Can anyone explain what these results mean?

Component TTG Ab,IgA Gliadin DGP Ab IgA IgA

Your Value 14.0 8.3 114

Standard Range <7.0 - <7.0 - 87 - 474

Units U/mL U/mL mg/dL

Flag H H

Negative <7.0

Equivocal 7.0-10.0

Positive >10.0

Glucose 115 70-100 mg/dL H

Lymphocyte % 24 26.0-46.0 % L

T3 169 87-167 ng/dL H

Free T4 0.79 0.8-1.80 ng/dL L

TSH 0.57 0.34-4.82 uIU/mL

I am curious on what this all means. Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

Heather Peters

Hi Heather, welcome to the board.

Have you ever been diagnosed with a thyroid problem? Are you by chance taking thyroid medication? People taking natural thyroid medication (Armour, Erfa, Nature-throid) often have low FT4 and low TSH. Your TSH is not technically "low" but is a lot lower than most people have it when they have normal thyroid function. This, coupled with your low Free T4, would make me ask for a closer look at thyroid/adrenal function. Your T3, while a tiny bit high, doesn't tell the whole story because the lab range suggests that is a "total" T3 rather than a Free T3. The "Free" T3 is the active thyroid hormone, and that is what you really want to see in order to determine whether you are a touch hyper.

You do have two celiac tests that show positive. One is definitely high, the other equivocal. Those tests raise a lot of suspicion and your doc wants to biopsy because it is still considered by many to be the "gold standard" for celiac diagnosis.

Was your test a fasting or non-fasting test? A fasting glucose of 115 is a red flag, getting into pre-diabetes range, and would encourage me to be watchful of my carbs.

Just some thoughts, I'm not a medical professional.

[Skylark]

Hi and welcome. You have celiac disease. Your TTG and IgA-DGP are positive, which are both celiac disease tests. TTG is an autoimmune antibody, and IgA-DGP is a gliadin reaction that is only positive in celiac disease. The biopsy will determine the extent of the celiac damage. Some people with positive blood tests do choose to accept that they are celiac and opt out of the biopsy.

I agree with beachbirdie that the glucose is worrisome if you fasted before the blood test and had it done first thing in the morning. It's fine after a meal. Your thyroid numbers are a bit off but a gluten-free diet often really helps with thyroid trouble so I wouldn't sweat the thryoid numbers until you've been gluten-free a while.

Even if your doctor doesn't catch any damage on biopsy, you need to be gluten-free becasue autoimmune damage can be patchy and develop over time.