Carrie's blood tests - Prometheus Labs

[Carrie]

Although my biopsy for Celiac was negative, I still was concerned about gluten sensitivity and wanted a second opinion. In 11/2004 I saw Dr. Susie K. Lee at Columbia Medical in NYC. She is an associate of Dr. Peter Green, a prominent expert in Celiac disease. Dr. Lee had me re-tested for gluten antibodies (previous tests were nornal) and, more importantly, for the Celiac genes. The latter, if negative, would definitely rule out Celiac - now and forever. My blood was sent to Prometheus Labs in California - one of the best labs in the country for this type of testing. My insurance (Empire BlueCross/Blue Shield PPO) paid most of the $440 cost. Here are my results:

Celiac Disease Seriology - tests for certain ANTIBODIES (AGA IgG, AGA IgA, TTG IgA and EMA IgA). Results - all normal.
Celiac Genetics - tests for Celiac GENES (HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQ8). Results: positive for DQ2, negative for DQ8.
Note: having DQ2 does not mean I have Celiac but that does put me in an "at risk" group.

The University of Chicago has good explanations for the above (both are PDF files so you'll need Adobe Acrobat to bring them up):
blood tests http://www.uchicagokidshospital.org/pdf/uch_007935.pdf
genetic tests http://www.uchicagokidshospital.org/pdf/uch_007936.pdf

I still am considering stool testing through Enterolab to determine, once and for all, if I am sensitive to gluten. To be continued...

Carrie