<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Dear Listmates -
Can the anti-endomysial antibody level test give a false positive?

My husband participated in U of Maryland & U of Chicago
blood tests a few years back, and one set of tests was
positive/borderline and the other set was negative
His current primary care doctor ordered the anti-enodomysial, anti-gliadin,
and anti-reticulin tests on my husband's annual check-up.

He didn't order the tTG test, though, which I find strange, and has
never ordered an endoscopy.

The anti-endomysial came back positive this time.
Can this test give a false positive, or is it considered diagnostic?
I don't know if his anti-gliadin was borderline or what.

I am biopsy-diagnosed myself...My blood tests were negative - except
for the anti-gliadin being borderline - in 1999, and it was a few months
before the tTG came on the market.  But the endoscopy/slides showed
the disorder clearly, and so did my symptoms - and their prompt
disappearance
on the gluten-free diet.

My husband's symptoms are more vague, but his father and his father's
parents had chronic digestive complaints, short stature, were skinny,
and problems with lactose.

Thank you.
Vicki

* Please remember some posters may be WHEAT-FREE, but not GLUTEN-FREE *