Anyone get diagnosed with celiac disease yet their biopsy came back negative?
@writerightmom (148)
United States
January 28, 2007 9:53pm CST
I have been sick for years and my gatroenterologist thought that maybe I had celiac disease because a blood test came back positive. He biopsied my stomach and small intestine, but it came back negative. Anyone else experience this? Were you given a diagnosis? Is it possible for a person to have the disease yet the entire small intestine is not affected yet?
2 people like this
6 responses
@blueskies (1186)
• United States
30 Jan 07
It is possible to get a negative biopsy when you have celiac. The reason for this is that the damage to the villi in the intestines may not have been in the spot that he biopsied. Also, if you had been gluten-free for a length of time before the biopsy, your villi would have had time to heal.
I recently had an endoscopy and biopsy as well as the blood tests for celiac. They all came back negative. However, when I went gluten free, my chronic diarhea went away completely within a few days. My gastroenterologist told me that was proof enough for him.
@writerightmom (148)
• United States
7 Feb 07
Wow! That's encouraging. Was chronic diarrhea the only symptom you had? Are you still gluten-free?
@buttons101 (325)
• United States
30 Jan 07
Try the gulten free diet and see what happens.
1 person likes this
@1grnthmb (2055)
• United States
30 Mar 07
I have celiac disease but have not been fully diagnosed with it. When I had the blood tests done I was all ready on the diet for 6 months so they were negative because there were not enough anti-bodies left for the tests to show a positive result. Same thing with the biopsy. I was told after the fact that I should have been eating gluten ladden foods for a week before the tests. Anyway my doctor said that my reaction to the glutens was enough for her to make a diagnoses so it is offically on my charts. My Doctor checked my small intestine too and found nothing wrong. The positive blood tests means that you have it. Lucky You! You may have had a low enough gluten intake to have none or very little damage to the vili. And luckily the vili heals itself fairly quickly. The best thing to do is just go on the gluten free diet and stay on it. It took me a couple of months before I started feeling better while other people say that they feel the difference within a couple of weeks.
@sherrir101 (3670)
• Malinta, Ohio
30 Jan 07
I have celiac disease and the same thing happwned to me. The doc explained (still don't understand) that mine was not active at that time. So, can it be active off and on?
@writerightmom (148)
• United States
7 Feb 07
Holy cow! So did you have to get biopsed twice? Or did you have blood tests that confirmed it? Are you gluten-free? How are you feeling and how long before you felt better? Sorry for all the questions but I've been sick for years and I'm trying to get to the root of the problem since the doctors can't seem to.
@lisa86 (1)
• United States
30 Apr 07
Many people have that experience. In fact, after doing extensive research on Celiac Disease after suspecting that I had it, I decided to skip all of the expensive testing and jump straight to what the doctor will almost always say in the end anyway. Which is, eliminate gluten entirely from your diet and see if you respond favorably. I could tell within a week. All the testing available can come back inconclusive, and from what I have learned a biopsy is the most inconclusive testing method of them all, since most damage is patchy in the intestines and the chance that they will hit a spot that does not have substantial damage is great.