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At 10:49 PM 1/26/97 UT, Andrew Glew <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Does anyone know where in London, England, I can get an Elisa Test? Although
>I haven't been diagnosed, I suspect I may be gluten intolerant, and would like
>to get tested for gluten and other food sensitivities. The one place in London
>I know of that did the test has now stopped.

Genesis Diagnostics specializes in ELISA based diagnostic test kits.
Included are gliadin antibodies, IgG and IgA. See:

  http://www.gemini.co.uk/biopages/co/genesis.html

For other food sensitivities:

   York Nutritional Laboratory
   Tudor House
   Lysander Close
   Clifton Moor
   Clifton, York YO3 4XB
   tel (+44) 1904 690 640
   fax (+44) 1904 690 630

>Also, does anyone have experience of neurological symptoms linked to problems
>with wheat and/or gluten?  Numbness, muscle weakness, visual disturbance, etc.

In this article:

Hadjivassilou et. al. "Does cryptic gluten sensitivity play a part in
neurological illness?" _The Lancet_ 1996; 347: 369-371.

They found that 57 percent of those with neurological problems of
unknown cause also had antibodies to gliadin, which is a component of
gluten. Sixteen percent of them had coeliac disease, a much higher level
than normally found. Most of the patients with the anti-gliadin antibodies
did not have other symptoms of coeliac disease such as poor absorption of
vitamins.

In this article:

Cooke WT, Neurologic manifestations of malabsorption. In Handbook of
clinical neurology, volume 28 (metabolic deficiency diseases of the nervous
system, part II), Amsterdam; North Holland Publishing Company, 1976;
225-41.

They discuss the many neurological manifestations that are associated with
coeliac disease, including ataxia, peripheral neuropathy, myelopathy,
myopathy, and dementia.

In this article:

"Neurological Manifestations of Adult Coeliac Disease", David Beversdorf,
Peter Moses, Alexander Reeves, and John Dunn, _The Lancet_, Feb. 17, 1996, v347.

They discuss the neurological manifestations of adult celiac disease which
include cerebellar ataxia, sensory neuropathy, myopathy, hyporeflexis, and
seizures. These symptoms resemble those of Vitamin E deficiency. Patients
with abetalipoproteinaenemia, who lack the lipoproteins necessary to carry
fat-soluble vitamins, have similar symptoms. These patients respond to
water-miscible Vitamin E supplementation.

Don Wiss.