title: Celiac disease in adult patients: specific autoantibodies in the diagnosis, monitoring, and screening.
abstract: The increasing prevalence of celiac disease (CD), especially in adults, its atypical clinical presentation, and the strict, lifelong adherence to gluten-free diet (GFD) as the only option for healthy state create an imperative need for noninvasive methods that can effectively diagnose CD and monitor GFD. Aim. Evaluation of anti-endomysium (EmA) and anti-tissue transglutaminase IgA (tTG-A) antibodies in CD diagnosis, GFD monitoring, and first degree relatives screening in CD adult patients. Methods. 70 newly diagnosed Greek adult patients, 70 controls, and 47 first degree relatives were tested for the presence of EmA and tTG-A. The CD patients were monitored during a 3-year period. Results. EmA predictive ability for CD diagnosis was slightly better compared to tTG-A (P = 0.043). EmA could assess compliance with GFD already from the beginning of the diet, while both EmA and tTG-A had an equal ability to discriminate between strictly and partially compliant patients after the first semester and so on. Screening of first degree relatives resulted in the identification of 2 undiagnosed CD cases. Conclusions. Both EmA and tTG-A are suitable markers in the CD diagnosis, in the screening of CD among first degree relatives, having also an equal performance in the long term monitoring.
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology-Histocompatibility, "Evangelismos" General Hospital, 10676 Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Evagelia
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Trigoni
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology-Histocompatibility, "Evangelismos" General Hospital, 10676 Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3881-8839
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tsirogianni
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, University of Lübeck, 23562 Lübeck, Germany.
authors.forename: Elena
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Pipi
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology, "Evangelismos" General Hospital, 10676 Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Gerassimos
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-5302-5450
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mantzaris
authors.affiliation: Department of Immunology-Histocompatibility, "Evangelismos" General Hospital, 10676 Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Chryssa
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Papasteriades