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Skewed Test Results?

J123-123

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J123-123 Newbie
J123-123
Posted

My doctor had me do a celiac panel and the results came back negative.

However, I had been doing gluten free for 10 days at the time of the testing. Could this have affected the results? I was doing the elmination diet introductory period, no wheat, soy, corn, dairy, etc...

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Newbee Contributor
Newbee
Posted

It is possible but I'm not sure how likely. I always tell people to make sure they are eating gluten when they have the test otherwise they risk possibly testing negative when they are positive. If you would have tested positive I would guess that you might be a low positive (not trying to diminish a low positive all positive tests are bad). I say that as I had a follow-up blood test after being diagnosed after 7 months of being gluten free and I STILL was testing positive although it had dropped dramatically (went from 125 to 30). I had a lot of damage which I've heard is what a high test score indicates.

MitziG Enthusiast
MitziG
Posted

It would not be impossible that 10 days messed up your result....but it isn't likely either. If the full panel was done, and all were negative, then I would say that you can rule out that scenario. However, if just the ttg was done...maybe. as the above poster said, a very weak positive may have dropped that quickly. That said...a weak positive isn't necessar8ly an indicator of how severe the disease state is. I had celiac for 30 years, was un dx, and tested as "weak positive." Yet when the endoscopy was done the damage was severe enough that the GI dx me even before the biopsies came back because it was visible to the naked eye and he said it was obviously something that had been there for years. Celiac is just kind of a baffling disease...there are so many inconsistencies with its presentation and in testing....it can be difficult to pin down.

ravenwoodglass Mentor
ravenwoodglass
Posted

It is possible that being gluten free could have affected the test even though it was only for a short time. Some of us will show up negative even on a full gluten diet. Have you noticed any difference in your symptoms gluten free?

Cara in Boston Enthusiast
Cara in Boston
Posted

My blood test went from positive to negative after 12 days of being gluten free. My son's blood was still testing positive after 6 months gluten free. It is different for everyone.

Did you feel better when you were gluten free?

Cara

J123-123 Newbie
J123-123
Posted
  • Author

My blood test went from positive to negative after 12 days of being gluten free. My son's blood was still testing positive after 6 months gluten free. It is different for everyone.

Did you feel better when you were gluten free?

Cara

I didn't feel any better the 2 weeks that this non-allergen diet lasted. The first few days were hell as I was bloated and moody, "releasing toxins" or something I suppose haha. And I also had to quit coffee so energy levels were crap during the diet, crap after now I'm 3 weeks off coffee and back on my regular food.

But the only thing that was different during the diet was I had green stool starting about the second day in, and continued that way until about 2 days after eating regular food again.

ravenwoodglass Mentor
ravenwoodglass
Posted

I didn't feel any better the 2 weeks that this non-allergen diet lasted. The first few days were hell as I was bloated and moody, "releasing toxins" or something I suppose haha. And I also had to quit coffee so energy levels were crap during the diet, crap after now I'm 3 weeks off coffee and back on my regular food.

But the only thing that was different during the diet was I had green stool starting about the second day in, and continued that way until about 2 days after eating regular food again.

Many of us will go through a withdrawl when we come of of stuff we are intolerant to. In addition you went cold turkey off coffee which can also be very hard. If going off so much also meant you were suddenly eating many more fruits and veggies than usual that can cause some folks to get bloated and perhaps have other issues. Don't know if that might have been a issue for you.

You might want to try being just gluten free and maybe dairy light for a bit If you are done testing. Go with whole foods as much as you can and see if you are feeling better after a couple more weeks. You could also chose to continue back on gluten for a while and get retested but there is still the possibility of a false negative so a good 2 or 3 months trial of the diet would still be a good idea after you are done testing.

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justlisa Apprentice
justlisa
Posted

Yes... coffee-free is a bigger challenge than gluten-free...for me anyway! ;)

As for the OP's question... The fact that many, many people get negative results on bloodwork AND endo...but actually have celiac/NCGI was the very first thing I learned when researching this... So, it would seem plausible, to me, that you could have tested negative after 10 days gluten free. OR... "You" could be one of those who would test negative even on gluten...but, you COULD have celiac or NCGI...

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