To confirm the diagnosis of celiac disease, doctors rely on a combination of blood tests and small intestine biopsies. These tests must be done while while the patient is still eating a gluten-containing diet.
A celiac disease Marsh score is determined by the pathologist who evaluates the biopsy. The Marsh score stages range from 0 to 4, depending on the damage in the small intestine.
The following groups are at higher-than-average risk for celiac disease, according to the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) and the American College of Gastroenterology.
Some doctors don't know when to suspect celiac disease. Here are three good review articles about celiac disease, from respected medical journals, that you can print out and give to your doctor.
The number of people diagnosed with celiac disease (the celiac disease diagnosis rate) has been rising, from less than 1 per 100,000 in the 1950s to roughly 20 per 100,000 in 2003.
In order to confirm a diagnosis of celiac disease, endoscopy is required, so your doctors can take biopsy samples of tissue from your small intestine. Here's what to expect before, during and after the endoscopy.
The diagnosis of celiac disease is made with a combination of blood tests and small intestine biopsy.
Genetic testing for celiac disease might benefit first-degree relatives (parents, children, siblings, grandparents) of celiac patients, people who are already following a gluten-free diet, and people with small intestine biopsy results that are inconclusive.
If you have a family member with celiac disease, you may want to have genetic tests to see if you have the celiac disease genes. If you are a first-degree relative, you have a 1 in 22 chance of developing the disease in your lifetime. If you are a second-degree relative, your risk is 1 in 39.
Dermatitis herpetiformis is a painful skin disease caused by an autoimmune reaction to gluten.
Celiac disease can begin at any age, involve multiple organs, and in both children and adults can have extremely variable symptoms -- or there may be no obvious symptoms at all.
If you or your child has been diagnosed with celiac disease through a biopsy in the past three months, the University of Chicago’s Celiac Disease Center will send you a free basket of gluten-free resources.
Doctors are starting to look for celiac disease in elderly patients. Read about the latest research on celiac disease in the elderly, by researchers in America, the U.K., Finland and Israel.
You need to protect your child from literally thousands of food products. Here are some steps and resources to get you started.
