Gastric Distress and Gluten Sensitivity

More than 3.6 million patients visit a primary care provider seeking relief from digestive problems each year. Gastrointestinal (GI) issues in patients are characterized by common lingering symptoms such as constipation, bloating, reflux, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain. These symptoms overlap a wide range of diseases, and potential causes of GI problems include infections, food intolerances, food allergies and autoimmune diseases.

Nearly 25% of Americans suffer from adverse food reactions that lead to prolonged GI issues. Improperly diagnosed food allergies can lead to unnecessary dietary restrictions that may adversely affect nutritional status and quality of life. Inversely, untreated celiac disease carries the risk of long-term complications such as osteoporosis and chronic malabsorption. Furthermore, since there are no specific tests for non-celiac gluten sensitivity, so it must be diagnosed by process of exclusion. Therefore, it is essential to determine if there is an underlying disease causing a patient’s GI symptoms.

Gastric Distress Profile

Proper diagnosis of GI disease is essential in the treatment of patients with gastric symptoms.

To rule out underlying diseases, the profile provides clinical data that can confirm or exclude common disorders and diseases that present with similar symptoms. The Gastric Distress Profile includes markers for:

Gastritis

First-line testing for pylori IgG, IgM, and IgA.

Celiac Disease and Gluten Sensitivity

First-line testing for tTG IgA and IgM, gliadin IgA and IgG, anti-endomysial Ab and gluten. Also available is HLA typing for HLA-DQ2 and HLA-DQ8.

Food Allergies

If first-line results for gastritis and celiac diseases are normal, second-line testing includes allergen-specific IgE testing for peanut, shrimp, scallop, wheat, sesame seed, walnut, hazelnut, cow’s milk, codfish, soybean and Egg whites

Test Benefits

The BioReference® Gastric Distress Profile has a range of benefits, including:

Identification of underlying symptoms or diseases leading to more targeted treatment and/or guidance for specialist referrals.

First- and second-line testing of relevant markers reduces unnecessary tests and leads to faster diagnosis of disease.
Treatment management tools (such as previous test results and highlighted abnormalities on the test report) promote patient engagement and treatment compliance.

Patient Considerations

Medical conditions commonly associated with GI symptoms include: infections, food intolerances, food allergies and autoimmune diseases. Patients with persistent symptoms where another underlying cause of cannot be identified should be considered for testing.

GASTRIC DISTRESS TEST

Healthcare Providers can properly care for a patient’s gastric distress or gluten sensitivity by diagnosing underlying or related symptoms of diseases. Please speak with your sales representative or click the link below to download the Gastric Distress healthcare provider resource.

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