An interview-based rating scale consisting of 15 items for assessment of gastrointestinal symptoms in irritable bowel syndrome and peptic ulcer disease has been developed. The interrater reliability was estimated by means of independent and simultaneous duplicate ratings by two raters in 20 cases and ranged from 0.86 to 1.00. The scale was easy to apply and proved to be useful in comparing the effectiveness of different modes of treatment in two clinical trials.

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To evaluate assay of gliadin antibodies of different immunoglobulin classes as a test for detection of coeliac disease, we analysed sera from 36 adult patients and 8 children with coeliac disease, 62 patients with other gastrointestinal diseases, and 124 blood donors with diffusion-in-gel enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (DIG-ELISA). Depending on the choice of reference levels for gliadin antibodies of the IgA and IgG classes, respectively, we found a diagnostic sensitivity for coeliac disease of 93-86% and a diagnostic specificity of 95-100%. Determination of gliadin antibodies by DIG-ELISA can thus be used as a test for detection of coeliac disease and selection of patients for small-intestinal biopsy.