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. 2017 Feb;64(2):286-291.
doi: 10.1097/MPG.0000000000001460.

Value of IgA tTG in Predicting Mucosal Recovery in Children With Celiac Disease on a Gluten-Free Diet

Maureen M Leonard  1 , Dascha C Weir, Maya DeGroote, Paul D Mitchell, Prashant Singh, Jocelyn A Silvester, Alan M Leichtner, Alessio Fasano
Affiliations

Value of IgA tTG in Predicting Mucosal Recovery in Children With Celiac Disease on a Gluten-Free Diet

Maureen M Leonard et al. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2017 Feb.

Abstract

Objectives: Our objective was to determine the rate of mucosal recovery in pediatric patients with celiac disease on a gluten-free diet. We also sought to determine whether immunoglobulin A tissue transglutaminase (tTG) correlates with mucosal damage at the time of a repeat endoscopy with duodenal biopsy in these patients.

Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of 103 pediatric patients, younger than 21 years, with a diagnosis of celiac disease defined as Marsh 3 histology, and who underwent a repeat endoscopy with duodenal biopsy at least 12 months after initiating a gluten-free diet.

Results: We found that 19% of pediatric patients treated with a gluten-free diet had persistent enteropathy. At the time of the repeat biopsy, tTG was elevated in 43% of cases with persistent enteropathy and 32% of cases in which there was mucosal recovery. Overall the positive predictive value of the autoantibody tTG was 25% and the negative predictive value was 83% in patients on a gluten-free diet for a median of 2.4 years.

Conclusions: Nearly 1 in 5 children with celiac disease in our population had persistent enteropathy despite maintaining a gluten-free diet and immunoglobulin A tTG was not an accurate marker of mucosal recovery. Neither the presence of symptoms nor positive serology were predictive of a patient's histology at the time of repeat biopsy. These findings suggest a revisitation of monitring and management criteria of celiac disease in childhood.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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