Celiac disease: 400 thousand patients not yet diagnosed

l’AIC shows that it is becoming increasingly difficult to diagnose chronic and autoimmune diseases early such as: celiac disease. More than 400,000 patients await diagnosis and suffer from problems not easily related to celiac disease. Years pass before the real diagnosis is known. There is in fact a similar but different form of celiac disease.

The name is dermatitis herpetiformis, a chronic itchy gluten-induced dermatitis. A long time passes before the diagnosis is made with a delay in adopting a diet without gluten. This delay can lead to bowel deterioration and further complications, even fatal.

The Scientific Council of the Italian Celiac Association makes available two publications to provide health professionals with a resource for good practice. They are titled “Celiac Disease and HLA Genetic Test” and “Celiac Disease and Herpetiform Dermatitis” respectively.

The recommendations, entrusted to Dr. Mauro Congia – Pediatric Clinic and Rare Diseases, University of Cagliari, suggest performing the genetic test in certain clinical situations and in different risk groups, reducing the random use of the test while at the same time allowing time for individuals who are negative for DQ2 and DQ8 to exclude from long-term screening. In addition, the publication would like to emphasize that those patients with a particularly high genetic HLA risk are also more at risk for associated autoimmune diseases such as insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.

Marco Silano, Coordinator of the Scientific Council of AIC

The second publication relates to herpetiform dermatitis. The delayed diagnosis often seems to be confused with other skin conditions such as scabies, atopic dermatitis, and many other similar conditions. l’Italian Celiac Association she is the mouthpiece for patients. It has 20 associated AICs that respond directly to the patient’s needs, improving Italian scientific research on celiac disease. In addition, it distributes the brand Spiga Barrata, the largest safety guarantee for celiac food.

Celiac disease is achronic inflammation of the small intestine caused by gluten, intolerant to genetically predisposed individuals. The diagnosis is made with blood tests for specific antibodies and small bowel biopsy. The only therapy is a gluten-free diet.