Antibodies to gliadin by ELISA as a screening test for childhood celiac disease.

The sera of 309 children who were subjected to jejunal biopsy were tested for antigliadin antibodies (AGA) with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in order to evaluate the usefulness of this test as a screening test for childhood celiac disease (CD). Thirty-one children had flat intestinal mucosa later confirmed to be due to CD. Ninety percent of these children had significantly elevated levels of IgA class AGA and 94% had significantly elevated levels of IgG class AGA as compared to standard references. Two hundred and seventy-eight children had normal villous structure. In this group, 37 children out of 271 (seven excluded because of selective IgA deficiency) had elevated levels of IgA class AGA, and 93 children out of 278 had elevated levels of IgG class AGA. We conclude that ELISA-AGA is suitable as a screening test for childhood CD.