Follow-up of patients positive in reticulin and gliadin antibody tests with normal small-bowel biopsy findings.

Twenty-five patients with positive serum reticulin or gliadin antibody titres and having normal small-bowel mucosal villous architecture were re-biopsied after a follow-up period of 1 to 7 years. Seven were found on control examination to have small-bowel villous atrophy. At the initial examination, when coeliac disease was 'excluded', they thus belonged to the entity latent coeliac disease. Morphometrically minor mucosal changes in the initial biopsy specimen, suggesting an ongoing process, were seen in only three of them. Especially the serum IgA-class reticulin antibody test was a good predictor of latent coeliac disease. This study implies that patients with so-called false-positive IgA-class reticulin or gliadin antibody test should be re-examined.