Kids' Test Results

[Ang724]

I was diagnosed with Celiac about 3 weeks ago and was told to have my children tested. Two of my kids have symptoms, two do not. Their pediatrician tested their IgA level (she said this one was the most used to test). We did not test my 7 month old. The range was less than 20 for normal. My oldest was 11, and the other two were 3. I know they were less than 20, but doesn't it show something since their results weren't 0? Does it mean their bodies are producing some antibodies? I'm confused by this because the ped said they were fine. We would just retest at their yearly PE's. (I hope my question makes sense :-) ).

[shadowicewolf]

1-19 is normal for someone (if i've got the scale right), 20-30 is considered a low positive, and anything above 31 a high positive.

It is normal for a body to produce a low amount of antibodies to my understanding.

[Ang724]

  On 12/23/2012 at 4:27 AM, shadowicewolf said:

1-19 is normal for someone (if i've got the scale right), 20-30 is considered a low positive, and anything above 31 a high positive.

It is normal for a body to produce a low amount of antibodies to my understanding.

Ok, I'm glad to know it's normal to produce some antibodies. Thanks :-)

[shadowicewolf]

  On 12/23/2012 at 4:42 AM, Ang724 said:

Ok, I'm glad to know it's normal to produce some antibodies. Thanks :-)

Indeed. The body produces, to my understanding, a certain amount of antibodies and whatnot (believe it or not, this also includes cancer cells in their 'dorment' form or so i've heard). It is when you start producing more than normal (or less for that matter) that it becomes concerning

[guest134]

Here is a little understanding of antibody tests.

To begin with, an antibody test is NOT a simple number of antibodies in the blood. It is not as simple as reading little dots and counting them like one antibody, two antibody, three antibody. The number you are seeing is a dilution titre to a reactivity staining pattern, the gliadin peptides are diluted by a machine (ELISA). The number references how many dilutions it took for the reaction to completely fade, through certain laboratory methods a "positive reaction" is chosen at a certain number. What this means is that your children's reactions were negative, requiring a less than positive dilution titre to vanish the pattern, the number under negative is irrelevant and does not mean you have some antibodies in your blood. That being said, having some antibodies is normal as well.

This is why a slightly over positive blood test means nothing, it requires a certain positive reaction to indicate that there is an autoimmune response strong enough to warrant concern over damage to the affecting organs. This is the cause of why many A.I patients will have false positive autoantibody tests in other areas, the cross reactivity will cause a false positive staining reactivity pattern.

You will notice that Antinuclear can have a positive staining pattern but under 40 dilutions is negative, just like the endomysial which can be reported as a positive reaction yet titred at 5 and under is negative. This is because those levels do not correlate with damage and risks or further indicate potential for a progressive autoimmune attack.

[Skysmom03]

Tests can vary too. We had my son tested for same reason. He had NO visible symptoms... Which really just men's none that were obvious to us ( because we live with him and we just thought he was doing 'normal' stuff. The ped tested him and his reading was 25. A month and a half later, the ped GI tested him at it was up to 67. Biopsy revealed about 3 years worth of damage to intestines. After 1 week of diet, we could see a Difference in personality. He even gained some weight ( he was already a healthy weight though) and gained 3 cm ( apparently a big deal at his age) in less than three months.

[nvsmom]

The tests are negative but you might want to retest them every few years if they continue to eat gluten. Celiac can manifest at any time, especially after a trauma or serious illness (like mono) so you'll probably want to keep an eye out for symptoms.

My boys all tested negative but my youngest visited the bathroom 5-8 times a day and my oldest had stomach and head aches, and has a tougher time controlling his emotions, so we decided make our family gluten-free. My youngest now only has bm's 1-3 times a day and my oldest says he feels quite a bit better. If your kids have any symptoms, you might want to consider going gluten-free anyways. Wheat has been so genetically modified that it hardly resmble the stuff our great grandparents ate... it's not a natural food anymore and I doubt it's that good for anyone.

[frieze]

what were the total IgA for ea child, without that the testing is meaningless.

[kerid]

  On 12/23/2012 at 7:09 AM, toworryornottoworry said:

Here is a little understanding of antibody tests.

To begin with, an antibody test is NOT a simple number of antibodies in the blood. It is not as simple as reading little dots and counting them like one antibody, two antibody, three antibody. The number you are seeing is a dilution titre to a reactivity staining pattern, the gliadin peptides are diluted by a machine (ELISA). The number references how many dilutions it took for the reaction to completely fade, through certain laboratory methods a "positive reaction" is chosen at a certain number. What this means is that your children's reactions were negative, requiring a less than positive dilution titre to vanish the pattern, the number under negative is irrelevant and does not mean you have some antibodies in your blood. That being said, having some antibodies is normal as well.

This is why a slightly over positive blood test means nothing, it requires a certain positive reaction to indicate that there is an autoimmune response strong enough to warrant concern over damage to the affecting organs. This is the cause of why many A.I patients will have false positive autoantibody tests in other areas, the cross reactivity will cause a false positive staining reactivity pattern.

You will notice that Antinuclear can have a positive staining pattern but under 40 dilutions is negative, just like the endomysial which can be reported as a positive reaction yet titred at 5 and under is negative. This is because those levels do not correlate with damage and risks or further indicate potential for a progressive autoimmune attack.

it is interesting what you wrote, thank you for explaining. however, i don't understand how you can write "those levels do not correlate with damage". just curious,,, how do you know that? how do you know that antibodies at a smaller amount aren't causing harm? (and i'm not questioning you. im genuinely wondering how you know that, so i can take this info to the pedi gi specialist!) thanks!