Weak positive IFA

[Cathyjw]

Hi all,

I've just called my doctors for the results of my intrinsic factor antibodies test and been told it's weak positive. Apparently it's been sent back to the lab for further tests/interpretation but the receptionist couldn't tell me what. Does anyone have any experience of this? What does this mean? It's been a battle to get this far so I'm worried this will mean more of a battle to get injections as it's not a straightforward result.

Thanks

Cathy

[GGourmet]

I wrote about the poor reliability of this test, about 1 week ago. It appears that GP's do not know or understand the vagaries of the test. This might be as good as it gets. Getting retested could produce a false negative or apositive.

[Cathyjw in reply to GGourmet]

Yeh I'm hoping they don't insist on a repeat test. My understanding is (correct me if I'm wrong) that the issue with the test is around false negatives not false positives. Am I right in thinking then that as my test was positive I should be treated for PA for life now with injections? I'm worried I may have a battle as whilst I have loads of symptoms and previously b12 levels as low as 149 currently it is about 280 thanks to self supplementation. As a result the gp is adamant it's normal and my labs cut off levels for deficiency are very low at 130

[Sleepybunny]

Hi,

Are you a PAS member?

pernicious-anaemia-society....

PAS tel no [phone] answerphone available

The PAS might be able to point you to info on IFA test.

[Gambit62 Administrator]

The test method has real problems distinguishing between a low level of anti-bodies and no antibodies - most methods will have this problem but generally this point is well outside the range that it is trying to measure but this isn't the case for IFA.

[Cathyjw in reply to Gambit62]

So having just obtained a copy of the results for a private appointment it turns out my gastric parietal cell result was weak positive and I am not awaiting a result for intrinsic factor antibodies. I don't quite know what to make of this as a few eeeks previously I had the same test and it was apparently negative. The lab seem to have insisted on doing it again as they won't do IF as a first line test. Is the GPC test unreliable as well?

[Gambit62 Administrator in reply to Cathyjw]

yes GPA is prone to false positives and is no longer recommended as a test for PA by WHO and this is reflected in current guidelines for the UK but it may be different in other countries