Testing Question

[Guest guest]

Q: What type of test are sick building members talking about having?

A: Several of our members have had the MAST test. MAST is short for

Multiple Antigen

Simultaneous Test. Any doctor who can draw blood can call the lab and get

their kit. You can get the food panel, the inhalant panel or both together.

If you have insurance, the cost is usually covered.

http://www.hcdiagnostics.com/

Hitachi Chemical Diagnostics

630 Clyde Court

Mountain View, CA 94043

Tel: 650 961 5501

800 233 6278

Fax: 650 969 2745

For their products catalog - see

http://www.hcdiagnostics.com/pdf/products.pdf

If anyone has anything to add about this test - please share it with the

group. I have heard controversy between doctors because exposure to stachy

sometimes does not show up - but IMHO it can help to know what you have been

exposed to since different toxins attack different bodily systems. For

instance, as I understand it - those of you with high mucor readings have

thickened blood. Correct me if I am wrong. I am sure we can learn a lot

for this.

Other members have send blood work to Dr. Garth Nicholson's lab for

mycoplasma testing.

http://www.immed.org

Garth Nicholson, Ph.D. and Nicholson, Ph.D.

Institute of Molecular Medicine

15162 Triton Lane

Huntington Beach, CA 92649-1041

Tel: (714) 903-2900

E-mail: gnicimm@...

free research documents - http://www.immed.org

Barbara

[Guest guest]

Why not have the blood test first? Actually, I doubt that you'd have a choice.

A blood test isn't invasive at all; a biopsy is, although not greatly.

A blood test is inexpensive; a biopsy isn't.

Blood tests rarely (perhaps never) show false positives, so if you have a positive result, you know where you are! If you have a negative blood test, you can proceed to a biopsy.

H.

In a message dated 9/15/08 7:26:57 PM, mac202@... writes:

About two years ago i was given a blood test for celiac at my request.

Not sure which antibodies they tested for. It came back negative but I

had been on a mostly gluten free diet at the time. I discontinued the

diet after the test was done. I have many of the symptoms associated

with celiac. I am currently on a waiting list for exploritory shoulder

surgery due to pain in arm and back for over a year now. I would like

to be retested for celiac before I have the surgery. Should I go with

another blood test or should I ask for the biopsy. I have Kaiser and

see the doctors in Vallejo. Thanks for any advise.

**************Psssst...Have you heard the news? There's a new fashion blog, plus the latest fall trends and hair styles at StyleList.com. (http://www.stylelist.com/trends?ncid=aolsty00050000000014)

[Guest guest]

I would imagine your physician wouldn't even approve of the biopsy without first running a blood test, which is simple, much less expensive, and accurate, if one has not been on a gluten free diet. It sounds like if you were tested now, you could be more sure of the accuracy of the test result. Good luck!

In a message dated 9/15/08 7:26:48 PM, mac202@... writes:

About two years ago i was given a blood test for celiac at my request.

Not sure which antibodies they tested for. It came back negative but I

had been on a mostly gluten free diet at the time. I discontinued the

diet after the test was done. I have many of the symptoms associated

with celiac. I am currently on a waiting list for exploritory shoulder

surgery due to pain in arm and back for over a year now. I would like

to be retested for celiac before I have the surgery. Should I go with

another blood test or should I ask for the biopsy. I have Kaiser and

see the doctors in Vallejo. Thanks for any advise.

**************Psssst...Have you heard the news? There's a new fashion blog, plus the latest fall trends and hair styles at StyleList.com. (http://www.stylelist.com/trends?ncid=aolsty00050000000014)

[Guest guest]

I don't know where you are, but my GI at Kaiser, San Francisco was excellent in terms of diagnosing unsuspected, symptomless CD. His name is Lyn Shlager. I had a negative blood test, and but he persisted and did a biopsy. He followed up with another biopsy six months later, to confirm the diagnosis and to make sure healing was underway.

The only negative was that his office didn't tell me to keep eating gluten while I waited for the test and biopsy. I was lucky not to have had a false negative on the biopsy, due to my nearly GF diet at the time. (I say nearly GF because I was still ignorant of a few sources.)

Harper

In a message dated 9/16/08 7:49:47 AM, no_gravity3@... writes:

Doctors rarely (if ever) recommend a biopsy without doing a blood

test. There are many reasons to repeat the blood test, including: you

may have had a false negative due to your low-gluten diet at the time;

you may have been given an incomplete blood panel (very common) or

just the wrong test altogether (that also happens, believe it or not);

and, some people test negative one year and positive the next after

the celiac progresses and they develop more antibodies. Keep in mind

that "seronegative celiac disease" exists, which means you can have

celiac disease but test negative on all the blood tests (researchers

believe about 9% of celiacs are seronegative)

Dr. ine Mysliwiec is a gastroenterologist at Kaiser Vallejo and

very knowledgeable about celiac disease, including testing. Can you

get a referral to see her or at least have her advise your doctor

about appropriate testing?

http://www.permanenhttp://www.permahttp://www.perhttp://www.permah

Good luck -

**************Psssst...Have you heard the news? There's a new fashion blog, plus the latest fall trends and hair styles at StyleList.com. (http://www.stylelist.com/trends?ncid=aolsty00050000000014)