Effects of dietary gluten elimination in patients with recurrent minor aphthous stomatitis and no detectable gluten enteropathy.

Fifty patients with a history of minor recurrent aphthous stomatitis were entered into a 6-month double-blind controlled trial of a gluten-free diet. After hematologic and biochemical investigations and jejunal biopsy, one half of the group was given a gluten-free diet; the other half served as controls and received a gluten-free diet supplemented by gluten given blind (control diet). Twenty-three patients completed the trial, 11 patients on a gluten-free diet, 12 on the control diet. Four of the 11 on the gluten-free diet and 7 of the 12 on the control diet reported significant benefit in terms of minor recurrent aphthous stomatitis, but there was no statistical difference between the responses. The results fail to support studies that report widespread benefit in aphthae of gluten withdrawal and suggest simply a marked placebo response in the condition.