FOLLOW-UP OF PATIENTS POSITIVE IN RETICULIN AND GLIADIN ANTIBODY TESTS WITH NORMAL SMALL-BOWEL BIOPSY FINDINGS

Twenty-five patients with positive serum reticulin or gliadin antibody titres and having normal small-bowel mucosal villous architecture wer e re-biopsied after a follow-up period of 1 to 7 years. Seven were fou nd on control examination to have small-bowel villous atrophy. At the initial examination, when coeliac disease was 'excluded', they thus be longed to the entity latent coeliac disease. Morphometrically minor mu cosal changes in the initial biopsy specimen, suggesting an ongoing pr ocess, were seen in only three of them. Especially the serum IgA-class reticulin antibody test was a good predictor of latent coeliac diseas e. This study implies that patients with so-called false-positive IgA- class reticulin or gliadin antibody test should be re-examined.