Jejunal villous changes associated with farmer's lung.

Eighty-one patients with farmer's lung were screened for evidence of coeliac disease by assessing their clinical features, haemoglobin indices, serum vitamin B and folic acid levels. HLA typing was carried out and the frequency of antireticulin and other auto-antibodies was determined. Two out of 21 patients selected for jejunal biopsy had subtotal villous atrophy, a further 6 had partial villous atrophy and 8 out of 21 had increased lamina propria cellularity. The group as a whole had an increased number of intra-epithelial lymphocytes in the jejunal musosa. Sera of 7 out of 81 patients contained antireticulin antibody compared with 2 of 81 control subjects, a difference without significance. Other autoantibodies were not more frequent in the patient than in the control group and were of normal incidence. HLA antigens were also similar in both groups.