Is there any way to determine if someone has celiac disease when one has an Iga deficiency and has been gluten free for over a year? I'm going in Wednesday for a colonoscopy and an EGD. My new GI suspects that along with having Chrons' disease and MC it's likely I've hit a triple and also have Celiac. I would hate the thought of enduring yet another test only to find the results being inconclusive. She also wants me to do the pill camera but after reviewing the last colonoscopy she is afraid it would have to be surgically removed as the last GI doc couldn't get into the small intestines as the 'valve' was closed. No explanation was given i.e. stricture, etc. Sometimes I feel like Don Quixote fighting the windmill.
Sigh.........
Proper diagnosis - Celiac complicated by Iga deficiency
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Linda,
When you say the "valve" was closed, I assume you're referring to the cecum (between the colon and the small intestine). It should be closed. It's there to prevent backflow of colon contents into the small intestine. The cecum certainly opens at intervals, or you would never be able to have a BM, but that is irrelevant for getting a celiac diagnosis anyway.
The only way that I can think of to get a definitive diagnosis of celiac disease at this point would be to take biopsies of scattered locations in the small intestine (by means of an upper endoscopy). If you have mature celiac disease then you should still show some degree of villus atrophy, even after a year or two on the GF diet. Kids can heal sooner than that, but adults rarely heal in less than 3 years on the diet. Villus atrophy is the gold standard for celiac diagnosis, regardless of any other indications. Since you're already scheduled for an EGD, just make sure that they take plenty of biopsy samples from numerous locations in the small intestine. With the help of a good pathologist, the examination of those samples will provide your answer.
Tex
When you say the "valve" was closed, I assume you're referring to the cecum (between the colon and the small intestine). It should be closed. It's there to prevent backflow of colon contents into the small intestine. The cecum certainly opens at intervals, or you would never be able to have a BM, but that is irrelevant for getting a celiac diagnosis anyway.
The only way that I can think of to get a definitive diagnosis of celiac disease at this point would be to take biopsies of scattered locations in the small intestine (by means of an upper endoscopy). If you have mature celiac disease then you should still show some degree of villus atrophy, even after a year or two on the GF diet. Kids can heal sooner than that, but adults rarely heal in less than 3 years on the diet. Villus atrophy is the gold standard for celiac diagnosis, regardless of any other indications. Since you're already scheduled for an EGD, just make sure that they take plenty of biopsy samples from numerous locations in the small intestine. With the help of a good pathologist, the examination of those samples will provide your answer.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.