<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>
All the experts that I have spoken with say there are only two testing
methods. Both methods require you to be off {sic I'm sure he meant on} the
diet for some time to develope the antibody reactions. The biopsy is
considered the Gold Standard, and the blood test is a less invasive and less
conclusive test.
This information is mainly from information that I have received in the past
three years from UMD Baltimore Hospital and Stanford Hospital.
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Last fall at the Stanford Celiac Conference, quite a few people asked the
speakers, all of whom are recognized experts in the diagnosis and treatment
of celiac, what they thought of Enterolabs and stool testing. There was a
very clear concensus: "Save your money."
To date, I believe there are no peer reviewed studies supporting Enterolabs
testing.
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None--that's why the Celiac Disease organizations do not consider their
tests as accurate.
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Ken Fine appears to be in a patent process, and I have had that validated
from several major support organization sources. His work apparently has
not been duplicated. Some of the major doctors have tried to work with him
I'm told but couldn't duplicate his work. He apparently helped design the 5
year prevalence study and seems to have diverged from his peers since then.
There is an interesting comment on the Clan Thompson website about Ken Fine.
Here is the link. If you get any official validation I would be most
interested to see it, as many patients are turning to Fine for testing even
knowing the lack of validation. They usually go to him when they seriously
question the negative diagnosis they receive from their more conservative
doctors. So he likely processes a high number of samples from the
"undiagnosable" group of patients who have already discovered they respond
well to the GF diet.
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No -- no peer review documentation. Dr. Fine has not published research
findings for 4 years.
However, I have been notified by a family who is in Dr. Fine's current
research study. She reported Dr. Fine will be publishing soon. No date
given.
His lab is a fully accredited facility.
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Dr. Fine has not allowed his tests to be presented to the medical community
for validation; therefore, the medical community cannot comment on his
tests.
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From: Celiac Disease Center at Columbia Newsletter 10-18-04
2. RESEARCH ON THE UTILITY OF SALIVA AND STOOL TESTS FOR CELIAC DISEASE
There is controversy on the role of salivary and fecal testing for celiac
disease. This research from Germany showed that there was considerable
overlap of results from both patients with celiac disease and normal
volunteers, indicating that this test is not yet an appropriate test for the
diagnosis of celiac disease. There needs to be research performed on these
tests to determine there correct role.
Comparison of different salivary and fecal antibodies for the diagnosis of
celiac disease. Halblaub JM, Renno J, Kempf A, Bartel J, Schmidt-Gayk H.
Clin Lab. 2004;50(9-10):551-7.
ABSTRACT: To investigate the detectability and expressiveness of salivary
and fecal anti-gliadin (AGA), anti-endomysium (EMA) and
anti-tissue-transglutaminase (ATA) antibodies, 127 salivary and 160 fecal
samples of healthy volunteers and salivary and fecal samples of 17 patients
with histologically proven and 9 patients with suggested celiac disease were
investigated in this study. With all salivary parameters and fecal IgA AGA,
IgM AGA, IgA EMA and IgG EMA, healthy volunteers and patients showed
partially overlapping results. The most promising results in our study with
higher concentrations in patients with celiac disease were obtained by fecal
scIgA AGA and a combined determination of fecal IgA AGA, IgG AGA and IgM
AGA. Further investigations should be performed with fecal IgA EMA and scIgA
ATA based on human recombinant tissue-transglutaminase. One patient with
histologically proven celiac disease had normal serological but high fecal
scIgA AGA and scIgA ATA values. This patient emphasizes the importance of
fecal antibody determination for the diagnosis of celiac disease, at least
in patients with suggested celiac disease and negative serum antibodies.
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I just attended a lecture in Tucson by Dr. Fasano of the Center for Celiac
Research, U of Maryland, who made a passing reference to the fecal tests of
Dr. Fine, and said that they unfortunately were not
[yet] peer reviewed nor replicated by other GI MDs. Three years ago
after I was first diagnosed, I attended a lecture by Dr. Fine and followed
up with some questions of my own to learn basically the same thing - he is
convinced by the test, but had some "proprietary"
reasons for not submitting to peer review, if I recall correctly. I was not
sold, and have not used his services.
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It's my understanding that the answer is no. Even Dr. Fine understands this.
He is working on a study now that he intends to publish.
*Support summarization of posts, reply to the SENDER not the CELIAC List*
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