Anti-Reticulin Antibodies: A Diagnostic and Monitoring Test for Childhood Coeliac Disease

Abstract

The importance of anti-reticulin antibodies (ARA)--R1 pattern--has been evaluated as a diagnostic and monitoring test for childhood coeliac disease. A prospective study was performed in 140 patients: 68 children with coeliac disease, 32 with miscellaneous diarrhoea, and 40 controls. An indirect immunofluorescent test was used for ARA screening. The indirect correlation found in our study between the presence of ARA and coeliac disease in children on a normal diet and after gluten challenge and between the absence of ARA and coeliac disease in children on a gluten-free diet seems to be of value in the diagnosis of coeliac disease and in monitoring the response to treatment in coeliac disease children.

Salivary IgA antigliadin antibody as a marker for coeliac disease.

“…23 In order to minimise the number of negative biopsies, several non-invasive screening tests have been employed and, of these, the use of serological markers has proved to be the most fruitful.24 Thus measurement of serum antibodies to gliadin, reticulin, smooth muscle endomysium, and human jejunum have been employed and various researchers have reported acceptable levels of sensitivity and specificity. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] Little is know about mucosal immunity in this condition and the relationship between the antibody concentrations in blood and those in intestinal secretions. Gliadin in the gut lumen is thought to stimulate IgA precursor lymphocytes in the gut associated lymphoid tissue.…”

Anti‐gliadin Antibodies

“…Among nondietary antibodies of interest are reticulin antibodies, first reported in adult CD patients in the early 1970s. They have been proposed as screening tests for CD, but their sensitivity was found to be much lower than AGA (26,29,30,82,83). Nevertheless, there is one report that as many as 97% of coeliac children are positive for IgA antireticulin antibodies (84).…”