Blood Test Interpretation

[Jovie100]

Hello all! I am new to this site and have an endoscopy and biopsy scheduled in two weeks. Unfortunately, my doctor did not explain my blood results to me and I don't have another appointment with him to go over it. He simply said some results were positive and the biopsy is the next step. (He is a Celiac Specialist so although I'm upset he didn't explain more, I'm hoping he is still a capable doctor).

I have a biology degree and an understanding of the basics..but if anyone can give me some insight, I would be grateful. Especially the TTG results. I am soooo stressed about the biopsy, mostly the sedation.

Here are my results:

-IGA serum: 191 (normal)

-IGA AB group: 191 (normal)

-endomysial IGA anibody: POSITIVE titer (high)

-Gliadin (Demidated) AB, IGA: 152.5 (high)

-Gliadin (Demidated) AB, IGG: <20 (normal)

-Transglutaminase IGA : 47 (high)

-Transglutaminase IGG: 8 (high)

I'm so glad I found this website. I don't have much support for this and am glad I can find this support! :)

[Roda]

Just going by your blood work it seems like you have celiac. The EMA and Deamidated gliadin are specfic to celiac. The tTG can be elevated in other autoimmune diseases also, but since the others are positive it's safe to say the elevated tTG is from celiac also. Some doctors will diagnose on blood work alone.

The EGD isn't that bad. You won't remember a thing. Just make sure the doctor takes enough samples to check for celiac. I think it is recommended to have 8-10 taken from different areas in the small bowel. They will also look at other things besides celiac. They look at the esophagus and will take biopsies if necessary and examine the stomach. It's pretty routine to have a biopsy in the stomach to look for H Pylori. Even if the biopsy comes back negative doesn't mean you don't have celiac. You can get a false negative biopsy due to an inexperienced doctor performing the biopsy, inexperienced pathologist looking at the samples, not enough samples taken, samples not taken in damaged areas(damage can't be seen with the naked eye and it can be patchy with normal areas and damaged areas) or damage is in another area of the small bowel that is beyond the reach of the scope. The scope only goes into the first portion of the duodenum(small bowel) and it's not very far.

After your scope I would go gluten free. No need to wait on the biopsy results. With blood work like yours I wouldn't hesitate to go gluten free and call it celiac and I'm not a doctor.

I put my youngest son gluten free without a scope/biopsy based on a postive IgA tTG alone. He does not have any other autoimmune diseases so it was safe to say it was because of celiac and the fact that I'm blood and biopsy diagnosed. My oldest son hasn't had any positive blood work in the past 4 years and even had a negative biopsy. He went gluten free almost a year ago and has done wonderful. I had toyed with the idea for two years to put him gluten free also but was hard to commit without anything positive. Now if he gets CC'd he is miserable. So he can't be diagnosed celiac, but he is definately gluten intolerent.

[beachbirdie]

Ditto what Roda said. Lots of positive antibody tests, especially the anti-EMA, scream celiac.

[troykm]

The Biopsy is easy!

go to sleep for 10 min then feel great after. :-)

its only sedation, not anaesthetic

good luck.