Celiac Disease tests are made to be able to rule out any other disorders which have similar symptoms. Physician’s first suspicions are irritable bowel syndrome and/or food intolerance, which are the common symptoms confused with celiac disease. If these symptoms are not treated then celiac disease is considered.
Here are a series of celiac disease tests:
• Blood tests: tests that measure and reveal the quantity of the antibodies present that fight the cells of the small intestines. If the patient is positive then no further tests have to be done.
• Endoscopy – this is done to remove a small amount of tissue from the small intestine. This is done with the use of an endoscope. This device will allow the doctors to see or check the damage to the villi. The sample tissue will then undergo biopsy. The patient should however eat gluten rich foods while doing this test. If the patient is positive for celiac disease then he or she will immediately be prescribed with a gluten-free diet. If the body of the patient will respond positively with the diet, then it is most certain that the patient has celiac disease.
• Collecting pictures of small intestine with capsule endoscopy. The patient will be swallowing the tiny camera pill. It will then collect numerous pictures while it is travelling down through your body. It is then removed through the patient’s stool.
“Marsh classification” has different stages and means pathology changes. This method is not used very often because it has been proven unreliable. (-why?)
• Assessing the fat content with stool analysis. Patients with celiac disease have a higher fat content in their stools.
• Bone density tests. This is done to check for any problems in the bones that may be caused by the disease. These bone problems include osteomalacia and osteoporosis,which may develop due to celiac disease.
For evaluation of possible complications of this disease, there are other blood tests that can be done. To check for anemia, a complete blood count or CBC test may be undergone by the patient. The patient can also have a chemistry test which examines the sodium, chloride, carbon dioxide and potassium levels in the blood. This test is used to identify whether or not the patient has developed an electrolyte imbalance. There are new holistic healing programs that have created never before seen results that have really helped a lot of people with Celiac disease.