My doctor says I have no more intrinsic factor antibodies in my latest blood work. Initial levels were 1.2 (range 0-1.1) What does this mean? I don’t have a print out from my newer lab results or I’d supply updated numbers.
Parietal cell antibodies were high (103; scale 0-20 range) on my initial results. Been taking B12 shots for 4 months.
She’s still treating me for pernicious anemia, but I’m worried she’ll stop if the IFA stay gone.
Don't worry. Your injections must continue for your symptoms. I've been told I havent PA . But really don't know why I got so low. I have regular injections. They don't need to jeep retesting
It means you have PA! Gambit62 told me that on here for those results.
The IF antibodies test is notoriously unreliable and will show a false negative in about 50% of cases.
Like you I also had a positive result and a couple of years later then had a negative result.
The negative result changes nothing. The fact that you once had a positive IFAb test result means that you have a clear diagnosis of PA and you should be treated as such.
PA cannot be cured so the later result is meaningless.
From a laboratory's perspective, IFAb results are a problem. There are numerous different ways of testing for them, and it's unlikely that your Path Lab will use more than one. Kits have differing levels of sensitivity and specificity, and here's no agreed reference material/standard preparation for calibrating this test. However, it's a simple test for the laboratory to perform, and consequently is viewed as 'better than nothing'. It's possible that the labratory testing your blood may have changed methods, and this could result in a move from 'Positive' to 'Negative'.
The only lab test we had that actually did gave a useful result was the Schilling Test, which cost a great deal, relied on the patient to collect a 24 hour urine sample, and all of this in addition to injections and swallowing radioisotopes. This became unavailable quite a few years ago for a variety of reasons.
confused but mostly about intrinsic factor antibodies.
The difference between intrinsic factor antibody test and MMA
Test for intrinsic factor antibodies - when to do?
Intrinsic factor antibody result
