If you think you may have coeliac disease it is essential to continue to eat gluten until investigations are done to make a definite diagnosis. This is because taking gluten out of the diet, or reducing the amount of gluten before being tested, is likely to cause false negative results.
There are three steps in the diagnosis of coeliac disease:
1. Discuss your symptoms with your GP.
2. Your GP can then take a simple blood test to look for an antibody made by the body in response to eating gluten. A few people with coeliac disease do not make these coeliac disease antibodies, so if you have strongly suggestive symptoms of coeliac disease, you should discuss with your GP about going onto step 3 despite having a negative blood test.
3. Your GP will refer you to a gut specialist doctor (gastroenterologist) for a simple test called a ‘gut biopsy’. Small samples of gut lining are collected and later examined under a microscope to check for abnormalities that are typical in coeliac disease.
Current clinical guidelines recommend that all children and young people with Type 1 diabetes are screened for coeliac disease on diagnosis. It is also recommended that adults with Type 1 diabetes are assessed for coeliac disease. Testing should also be offered to anyone if signs and symptoms of coeliac disease are present.
Discuss any concerns you have about testing with your healthcare team.
If you are medically diagnosed with coeliac disease, the treatment is a strict gluten-free diet, which should be supervised by your healthcare team. After diagnosis, your condition should be reviewed at three months and six months to see if symptoms have improved and how you are managing with the gluten-free diet. If all is well, your condition should then be reviewed on an annual basis (or sooner if problems arise).
Reviewed March 2010
Next review September 2011