dermatitis herpetiformis and celiac disease

I have had a biopsy and have been told that I have DH.  My gastroenterologist did a small intestine biopsy and says that I don't have celiac disease.  What I have read says that I do.  Do I need to be on a gluten free diet all the time?

[finepickle]

From what I've read, if you have DH then you have celiac disease.  They say only people with celiac disease get DH.  You doctor may not have seen intestinal damage yet but that doesn't mean it will not happen.  DH is just one possible complication with celiac.  There are many others and they tend to occur over time the longer you are consuming gluten.  If you aren't on the gf diet now you might want to wait and get the blood test for the antibodies first.  The antibodie tests are not accurate if you aren't eating gluten.  Going gluten free id not that hard to do after you get used to it.
The endoscopy samples are generally taken from multiple locations in the intestine because the damage may not be uniform.  If they didn't sample the right spot it wouldn't mean they were no damaged ares, just that the missed them.

[Alyssum78]

DH is actually only a symptom of gluten sensitivity. It does not have to be Celiac Disease to cause it. But if you have gluten sensitivity you should get off of gluten regardless.

[Alyssum78]

Also, a biopsy can be wrong. If they take a sample from a place that is not damaged it will tell them nothing. Some people with Celiac had to be tested several times before they found the damaged villi.