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Can celiac disease be excluded? |
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No! Whatever test that you have had, if it was “normal” you cannot exclude coeliac disease. All that you can say is that, at the moment, you do not have coeliac disease. How can this be true?
Well, there are two problems with the diagnosis: 1 – Coeliac Disease is a progressive condition (think of heart disease or cancer). You do not suddenly get CD, but you slowly and subtly develop it. So a test this year might be normal, but next year it n-might be positive. 2 – the tests fro CD are not perfect. Even the endoscopy and biopsy are not accurate (see article on this “No gold standard”). The tTG blood test is good, but not always accurate. But what about the gene test (HLA DQ2/DQ8)? Sorry, this is useful to show your risk of getting CD, but again is not 100% reliable. Some people have coeliac disease who do not carry this genetic marker.
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