Application of ELISA method to determine antigliadin antibodies in children with coeliac disease.

The application of the ELISA method to the detection of antigliadin antibodies (AGA), class IgG and IgA in children with coeliac disease (CD) is described. All the patients of the group of 17 with untreated CD and another group of 19 with CD formerly treated and now gluten exposed show elevated AGA values. The group of 14 CD patients permanently treated with gluten free diet show AGA increase in 42.6% cases. A correlation between the advanced grades of mucosal atrophy and pathological elevated AGA IgA values is found in this group. Patients with acute CD put on gluten free diet display a faster and more marked drop of AGA IgA than AGA IgG in the course of 3 to 12 months. Higher AGA values are found for children with inflammatory bowel diseases. The control group have higher AGA values in 6.45% of instances. Due to its sensitivity (100% by the assessment of both the AGA immunoglobulins) and 93.55% specificity AGA determination represents a valuable screening test both when indicating enterobioptic examination and following the gluten free diet of CD patients.