Celiac Disease-what does it look like?

[Sea_Star]

Hi all..I'm wondering now if my mild crohn's is actually Celiac...I have the biopsy reports of my 3 colonoscopies so far, and would like to know the microscopic appearance of it. I was on 6mp when I went to Mayo in Rochester for a 2nd/3rd opinion, so idk if the negative blood test is accurate? Wouldn't the 6mp suppress any indication of Celiac in the blood?


I'm an asymptomatic Crohnie, other than RLQ soreness...not sure if that's indicative of bad inflammation or not. I mean, everytime you have sore muscles, do you take Tylenol? I know meds are supposed to improve quality of life, but not having symptoms this time (after being off meds for about 2 years) and being told i should, just decreases my quality of life by swallowing something which may cause cancer 2 years from now...without feeling like i need it in the first place. My BM are like, once every few days. I do have a persistent RUQ pain that supposedly is not my gallbladder or live (US negative)...

 

[Trischolar]

Hi Sea_Star,
I have both Crohns and Celiac and it is hard to tell them apart sometimes based on symptom- diarrhea, fatigue, aches, etc. I often wonder is this the start of a Crohns flare or did I accidentally ingest gluten?

However they are clinically pretty different. The gold standard for diagnosing Celiac is an biopsy of the small intestine which shows atrophy of the villi (basically inflammation wears away the villi in the small intestine- small finger like projections). Here is a good overview: http://celiac.org/celiac-disease/diagnosing-celiac-disease/diagnosis/ The GI who diagnosed me told me he didn't think it was Celiac even with the positive blood test, but agreed to do the biopsy to rule it out. He was wrong-the biopsy showed classic villous atrophy and I have been gluten free since.

I don't know if you have tried going gluten-free, but my advice is to wait. If you aren't currently eating gluten the blood test or biopsy won't be accurate since Celiac only causes inflammation in presence of gluten. There is also a genetic test for Celiac. You can't have the disease without one of two gene sequences, but you can have the gene and never develop Celiac. So it can exclude the possibility if no gene, but can't say for certain you do have (or will have) the disease if you in fact have the gene.

I have no idea how 6mp would affect the blood test. I have been curious about it myself- as I have recently started taking 6mp (wasn't on any crohns meds at time of Celiac diagnosis- was still in surgical remission). I wonder if a gluten reaction would be less severe for me now if the 6mp is suppressing the entire immune system.