chana said...
My son has symptoms of celiac: abdominal pain with diarrhea, rash that seems to be DH around elbows, joint pains, chronic headaches: all OK when GF, gets really bad when eats gluten. He had pizza at a party and broke out with rash again, stomach pain, headache, and knees very painful. He's 10. We have an appointment Friday for biopsy. Wondering if antibodies remain present as long as rash is visible, even if avoiding gluten now? i assume yes, but need to make sure.
He was possibly misdiagnosed years ago through blood test. i had no idea that it is only accurate if testing is done when on gluten diet. He had been GF for many months when tested. Dr has continued to tell me despite having so many symptoms that it can't be celiac because of negative test. Today she said she was wrong given he had been GF for so long before test.
i have extreme autoimmune issues (Severe RA, demylination, fibromyalgia). i tested positive for a gene my doc said puts me in celiac risk category. i feel horrible when i eat gluten: all the above worse. All that to say we are both in the quite possible group for celiac.
How reliable is the skin test?
sorry for such a long response, i was in another forum finding out my Mysterious neurological problems, and i had school. They test for Iga deposits in the skin, they immuno flourescet it. Positive test can indicate celiacs, gluten sensitivity or intolerance. DH is strongly indicative of 1 of the 3 diseases. next step would be blood tests, make sure its a full panel, i searched online, and some labs will do more, but i dont know if your insurance group allows it. Another step would be checking your small bowel for atrophy, sometimes even if you have symptoms it may not show up.
Since celiacs, sensitivity, and intolerance is autoimmune in nature. You would only produce the antibodies against gluten if you are ingesting , other wise it will show up as false negative. It is possible your son has the other 2, intolerance or sensitivity, since they wouldnt show up that way normally. Having autoimmune diseases puts you at high risk of other autoimmune. I had one teacher who had MS, and had to avoid eating gluten, i assume she had celiacs, as well.