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Written by Dr Rodney Ford
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Thursday, 13 March 2008 |
Blood or stool tests? Which test is correct?
Sue asks: “My doctor gave me a ‘full celiac panel’ blood test and it showed negative for celiac. But I had my stool tested by Dr. Fine and it showed positive. Which test is correct?”
Great question. Both tests are correct!
1) the "full celiac panel" will rely on the tTG test for tissue damage. If that is normal then your doctor will tell you that you do not have celiac disease (this is almost true – but to be absolutely sure you would need an endoscopy, this is because CD is a histological diagnosis) (see article “Is there a Gold Standard”).
2) The enterolab stool tested by Dr. Fine (www.enterolab.com) looks at the gluten antibodies that get released by the bowel mucosa (inside skin) and looks for the gluten antibodies (a large percentage of these antibodies do not get into the blood). This test is telling you that you are reacting to gluten.
So what does this mean? These tests tell you different things. However, both show that you do not have celiac disease, but you are gluten sensitive - you have what I called “The Gluten Syndrome”.
Go gluten free and feel well again. Cheers. Dr Rodney Ford. |
