Usefulness of the organ culture system when villous height/crypt depth ratio, intraepithelial lymphocyte count, or serum antibody tests are not diagnostic for celiac disease.

The existence of mild forms of celiac disease (CD) can make the histology-based diagnosis difficult to reach. Since anti-endomysium (EMA) and anti-tissue transglutaminase (anti-tTG) are detectable in culture supernatants of duodenal biopsies from CD patients, our aim was to assess if this system can support the histology in the diagnostic work-up. A total of 559 suspected CD patients underwent serum EMA/anti-tTG detection, upper endoscopy with duodenal biopsy sampling, histologic analysis, and organ culture to detect EMA/anti-tTG in supernatants.

Celiac disease: evaluation with dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging.

Purpose: To prospectively determine mural perfusion dynamics in patients with untreated celiac disease by using dynamic contrast material-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and to compare these dynamics with those in a control population and in patients with celiac disease treated with a gluten-free diet.

Materials And Methods: Institutional review board approval and informed consent from all participants were obtained. Sixty consecutive patients with untreated celiac disease, 45 patients with celiac disease treated with a gluten-free diet for at least 1 year, and 30 control subjects were enrolled in this study.

Oral mucosa patch test: a new tool to recognize and study the adverse effects of dietary nickel exposure.

On contact with the skin, nickel may cause allergic contact dermatitis, which can be diagnosed by an epicutaneous patch test. Nickel exposure via the intestinal mucosa can induce diarrhea, abdominal pain, and swelling. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between these symptoms and nickel intake by means of a novel oral mucosa patch test.

Organ culture system as a means to detect celiac disease.

Anti-endomysial and anti-transglutaminase antibodies can be produced in vitro by the intestinal mucosa of celiac disease (CD) patients in clinical remission, when the culture is performed in the presence of gliadin peptides. Our aim was to use this organ culture system as a means to detect the pathognomonic antibodies of celiac disease (CD) in the culture supernatants. Organ culture was performed in the presence of three different activators to evaluate which one induced the strongest antibody response in intestinal mucosa from patients in clinical remission of CD.

High incidence of celiac disease in patients with systemic sclerosis.

Objective: To evaluate the presence of celiac disease in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). The association of autoimmune diseases with celiac disease has been reported, but few publications deal with the combination of SSc and celiac disease.

Methods: We investigated the presence of anti-tissue transglutaminase (anti-tTG) antibodies and serum antiendomysial antibodies (anti-EMA) in 50 patients with SSc.