Plasma food antibodies during withdrawal and reintroduction of dietary gluten in coeliac disease.

Carswell, F., and Ferguson, A. (1973). Archives ofDisease in Childhood, 48, 583. Plasma food antibodies during withdrawal and reintroduction of dietary gluten in coeliac disease. Out of 55 patients with coeliac disease, 40 had food antibodies in their plasma at diagnosis. The antibodies disappeared in all but 6 of 21 patients after 2 months on a gluten-free diet. 5 out of these 6 patients had high plasma IgA levels at diagnosis. Reintroduction of wheat and rye gluten was accompanied by the intermittent presence of plasma food antibodies in 7 out of 8 patients subsequently shown to have the small bowel biopsy appearances of coeliac disease. Plasma food antibodies did not appear in 4 patients whose biopsies were normal after reintroduction of gluten. A single test for plasma food antibodies did not reliably indicate minor deviations from the gluten-free diet in established coeliac patients.