Eating Gluten made Eliza sick for a long time, but it was the only way for her to get a life -changing diagnosis.
At the age of 11 she underwent a gastroscopy in the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, with a biopsy that revealed that she had celiac disease.
Bendendo Woman Eliza Long says that the diagnostic process for celiac disease “confronts with a child”. ((ABC News: Sarah Lawrence))
More than 350,000 Australians live with the disease, caused by an immune response to the gluten protein found in wheat, rye and barley.
Current tests require patients to eat gluten weeks in advance, in what the gluten challenge is called.
“Knowing that what I was eating would really make me unwell, was quite worrying,” said Mrs. Long, now 23 years old.
And the long process was “confronting a child,” she said.
Eliza Long says it doesn’t have to be to eat gluten when they were diagnosed at 11 am “Life -changing”. ((Delivered: Eliza Long))
Researchers say that the Gluten Challenge informs people of answers, with a maximum of 80 percent of celiac disease -cases that have not been diagnosed worldwide.
Now there is hope that a “world-first” blood test is being developed in Australia that can lower that barrier.
‘Revolutionary’ test
Jason Tye-Din is the head of the Coeliac Research Laboratory of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (Wehi) and a gastroenterologist in the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
Jason Tye-Din says that the test means that patients do not need invasive gastroscopy. ((ABC News: Scott Jewel))
He said that a new test developed by Wehi researchers with Brisbane-based Novoviah Pharmaceuticals could “revolutionize” the diagnostic process for patients.
“It’s just a simple blood test, they don’t need invasive gastroscopy and, more importantly, they don’t even have to eat gluten to be accurate,” he said.
Researchers say that the test does not require patients to eat gluten for an accurate diagnosis. ((ABC News: Scott Jewel))
The test includes the mixing of the blood sample of a person with gluten in a test tube, who then indicates whether the T cells that cause celiac disease are present.
Dr. Tye-Din said it could improve the detection of the disease, especially with those who did not want to eat gluten-free diets who did not want to eat gluten and did not want to make themselves right.
“About one in 70 Australians has been hit, but four of the five people don’t know they have it,”
he said.
“It is really important to make a diagnosis of celiac disease, because this can lead to long -term health problems such as intestinal symptoms, osteoporosis, infertility, even some forms of cancer, such as lymphoma.”
A study of 181 blood samples of people with and without celiac disease found a “very high accuracy” for the new test to make or exclude a diagnosis, even in people with gluten -free diets.
Eliza Long believes that more people will go through the process to be diagnosed if no gluten are needed. ((ABC News: Sarah Lawrence))
In one case Dr. Tye-Din that a patient who was diagnosed 10 years earlier tested negatively, allowing another diagnosis to be made.
“This test enabled us to find the right treatment for her,” he said.
Researchers are working on the accuracy of the test on different populations and intend to make them available within the next two years.
Mrs. Long said that it would not have been allowed to eat gluten before her diagnosis “life -changing”.
“To go to your doctor and get the blood test … It will encourage many people to get it done,”
she said.
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