<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
Thanks for the overwhelming number of e-mails regarding HLA testing. I
heard from many people who are wondering if HLA testing would provide a
definitive diagnosis. Bill Elkus suggests reading the list archive on
HLA testing. I hope my interepretation of this summary is correct: DR3,
B8 and DQ2 markers are associated with CD. To a lesser extent DR4 and
DQ8 molecules are associated with CD. "Some very few Celiacs are
neither DQ2 nor DQ8 implying that HLA typing is not a perfect predictor
of risk for Celiac Disease". I'll be the first to say that I need "HLA
for Dummies". Perhaps (after reading the archive) people could e-mail
any questions to me. I will consolidate and post them. Further
questions: if there were many people interested in HLA testing, is there
a lab that would test us as a group? Would anyone be interested in
conducting a study of "unconfirmed celiacs" with correlative HLA
testing? Thanks for all your replies! Sally