Another large study (KJ Werkstetter et al. Gastroenterol 2017; 153: 924-35) shows a high accuracy of diagnosing celiac disease (CD) without a biopsy when very high celiac titers are identified in symptomatic patients. A previous study (n=898) this year also showed similar findings: The Non-Biopsy Diagnosis of Pediatric Celiac Disease
The current study (2001-2014) identified 743 consecutive pediatric patients with positive celiac serology (TTG-IgA). Key findings:
- If TTG-IgA was higher than 10-fold the upper limit of normal and a separate sample tested positive for endomysial antibodies, then non-biopsy approach had a positive predictive value >99.6%. The authors utilized a variety of TTG-IgA assays.
- The authors noted that HLA-DQ2/DQ8 typing did not improve the accuracy of CD diagnosis. “Negative results for HLA-DQ2/DQ8 in patients with TGA or EMA positivity are most likely false negative …or due to very rare risk-allele combinations not recognized by the test systems.”
- “At least 50% of affected children in clinical practice will benefit from this nonbiopsy approach, which reduces burden and risks of endoscopy and anesthesia” and is more cost-effective.
The authors’ conclusion: “allowing omission of biopsies enables a correct diagnosis of CD in symptomatic children if TTG-IgA exceed 10xULN and positive EMA-IgA confirms celiac disease autoimmunity in a second blood sample. If one of these criteria is not fulfilled, biopsy should be performed to confirm the diagnosis.”
My take: This study provides convincing data that CD diagnosis does NOT require an intestinal biopsy under specific conditions.
Related blog posts:
- Followup Biopsies in Pediatric Celiac Disease?
- How Slow Do Objective Markers of Celiac Change After Treatment? | gutsandgrowth
- Are followup biopsies necessary in celiac disease? Look beyond the headlines
- To biopsy or not to biopsy -that is the question (for Celiac disease)
- How Accurate is Serology at Predicting Mucosal Healing in Celiac Disease
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- Why is Celiac Disease Becoming More Prevalent? | gutsandgrowth
- Benefits of Gluten–Free Diet for “Asymptomatic” Celiac | gutsandgrowth
- Closer followup for Celiac disease & pediatric … – gutsandgrowth
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