Correlation of endoscopic and histological features in adults with suspected celiac disease in a referral center of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Context: Clinical presentation of celiac disease is extremely variable and the diagnosis relies on serologic tests, mucosal intestinal biopsy and clinic and serologic response to a gluten-free diet.

Objectives: To correlate the endoscopic and histological aspects of adult patients with suspicion of celiac disease and to evaluate the interobserver histological agreement.

Methods: Endoscopic aspects of 80 adult patients were evaluated and correlated with the histological features according the Marsh-Oberhuber classification system. The interobserver histological agreement was based on kappa values.

Results: The symptoms of the patients varied largely, with prominence for chronic diarrhea, present in 48 (60%) patients. The endoscopic aspects related with the duodenal villous atrophy had been observed in 32 (40%) patients. There were confirmed 46 cases of celiac disease, with prevalence of 57.5%. The sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value of the endoscopic markers for celiac disease diagnosis were of 60.9%, 88.2%, 87.5% and 62.5%. There was moderate interobserver histological agreement (kappa = 0.46).

Conclusions: The endoscopic markers of villous atrophy, although not diagnostic, had assisted in the suspicion and indication of the duodenal biopsies for diagnosis proposal. Histology is sometimes contradictory and new biopsies or opinion of another professional can provide greater diagnostic agreement.