Psoriatic arthritis-celiac disease and IGA antibodies to gliadin (vol 27, page 33, suppl 59, 2000)

This study was aimed to investigate the prevalence of celiac disease and an tibodies to gliadin (AGA) in psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and to study the ass ociation to clinical features. Five patients of 114 (4.2%) had celiac disea se. The mean IgA AGA (patients with celiac disease excluded) was found sign ificantly higher (p=0.0005) compared to the reference group. None of the patients had IgA antibodies to endomysium, The mean serum IgA w as increased and the mean IgM decreased in PsA. Patients with asymmetric sm all-joint involvement had the highest mean IgA AGA and those with distal jo int involvement the lowest. Patients with high IgA AGA had significantly hi gher ESR, CRP and morning stiffness. We found an increased prevalence of celiac disease and raised IgA AGA. asso ciated to more pronounced inflammatory disease in PsA. Serum IgA was particularly elevated in those with raised IgA ACA. Further s tudies will show if gluten avoidance may decrease the severity of arthritis in PsA.