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Dear Listmates - 
Most of my responses were to ask a question or two, and I 
don't have the answers at this point. 

I have emailed Dr. Mark T. DeMeo, my gastroenterologist at Rush, to see what he knows about hyposplenia (low spleen function i.e. does not produce enough of whatever it produces) in people with Celiac Disease. 

I also emailed my new Rheumatologist at University of Chicago. When I hear from these people, I will post the information. It may be a few days. 

Hopefully I will have more information some time next week. 

To clarify, since one response thought I was referring to an auto-immune test for Celiac Disease and that I needed information on Celiac Disease: 

I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease ten years ago, by biopsies, since I didn't produce the level of antibodies that you would expect for having Celiac Disease. The biopsies clearly showed Celiac Disease, and I had been quite ill with it. My symptoms disappeared within 2 days of going strictly gluten-free.

I get auto-immune tests every 2 years for other auto-immune disorders that occur more frequently in people with Celiac Disease. I have Fibromyalgia, and Diabetes type I and type II run in my family, and I have the extreme dry eyes and dry mouth of Sjogren's. 

Since no one had ordered those tests in at least two years, when I went to the opthamologist for an annual check on auto-immune scleritis (I've had two bouts in the past few years), I mentioned that I was overdue for auto-immune blood tests, and he ordered them, and ordered two tests I never had before called ANCA tests. 

ANCA tests check for a very serious problem called Vasculitis. One of the two tests was abnormally high, but the companion test was zero, which made no sense at all, so he sent me to a good Rheumatologist at University of Chicago, and I am waiting for results of further tests.

Let's hope they come back negative. Vasculitis can be fatal, and treatment for it is drastic and would have a lot of repercussions. 

Enough said. Thank you to all who responded. I will post again when I get a response from Dr. DeMeo. 

Vicki in Illinois 





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