The test for coeliac disease will not be accurate if you do not have gluten in your diet. Make sure your diet contains wheat, barley or rye in the 6 weeks before testing for accurate results.

Children may struggle to use a finger-prick collection kit. All children will need to be supervised / helped by an adult when using the finger-prick blood collection kit.

If you're not able to eat any gluten at all because of symptoms then this test won't be as accurate in detecting coeliac disease.

If you're unsure if you should use this test panel, please contact us for advice.

The coeliac disease blood test is analysed by The Doctors Laboratory (TDL), one of the largest laboratories in the UK. TDL test for both the NHS (e.g. University College Hospital London) and private providers such as ourselves. The exact same testing platforms and procedures are used in either case.

However, no test is perfect and there can always be "false positive" and "false negative" results. The tissue transglutaminase antibody test for coeliac disease has a sensitivity of 91% and a specificity of 91%. The liklihood that you don't have coeliac disease if you get a negative test result is approximately 99.7%^ref.

Coeliac disease is an automimmune condition, meaning that your body creates an immune response against your own cells. This autoimmune reaction is triggered by gluten. However, we're not 100% sure what causes some people to have coeliac disease while most don't. We do know that it's associated with certain genes. People with coeliac disease will have one of three types of HLA gene: HLA-DQ 2.5, HLA-DQ 8 or HLA-DQ-2.2. However, around 40% of people have one these HLA types but only 1% of people have coeliac disease. This means that environmental factors - e.g. diet or infections - are probably also important.

The main treatment for coeliac disease is to avoid gluten by following a "gluten-free diet". This generally involves foods that contain wheat, barley or rye.

If someone with coeliac disease eats gluten, it will trigger an autoimmune reaction causing inflammation in the small bowel and potentially elsewhere in the body.

This can have lots of effects such as bowel symptoms, failure to absorb nutrients leading to deficiencies, infertility, nerve problems and even an increased risk of cancer. This is why it's so important to diagnose coeliac disease. Unfortunately, 75% of people with coeliac disease don't know they have it.

Yes, celiac disease is just the American spelling of coeliac disease. Unfortunately, many people refer to coeliac disease by incorrect terminology such as "gluten allergy" or "gluten sensitivity". These can be misleading so it's best to stick to coeliac disease.