The delayed diagnosis of coeliac disease.

The prevalence of coeliac disease in New Zealand appears to be much lower than in the British Isles suggesting the possibility that coeliac disease is not being diagnosed in this country. This view point is supported by the two patients reported in this paper who had coeliac disease diagnosed after ten years and at least 36 years of symptoms respectively. The importance of diagnosing coeliac disease is stressed, particularly because of the greatly increased risk of developing lymphoma (from which one of the two patients died). The need to investigate all patients with chronic diarrhoea and other gastrointestinal symptoms is stressed.