Background & Aims: Celiac disease can develop at any age, but outcomes of adults with positive results from serologic tests for tissue transglutaminase antibodies (tTGA) without endoscopic determination of celiac disease (called celiac autoimmunity) have not been thoroughly evaluated. We investigated the proportion of adults with celiac autoimmunity at a community medical center and their progression to celiac disease.
Methods:We analyzed waste blood samples from a community clinic from 15,551 adults for tTGA and, if titers were above 2 U/mL, for endomysial antibody. The blood samples had been collected at 2 time points (median interval of 8.8 years), from 2006 through 2017. We collected data from the clinic on diagnoses of celiac disease based on duodenal biopsy analysis.Results: Of the serum samples collected at the first timepoint, 15,398 were negative for tTGA and were 153 positive for tTGA (>4 U/mL). Based on medical records, 6 subjects received a diagnosis of celiac disease, for a cumulative incidence of celiac disease diagnosis of 0.06% (95% CI, 0.01%-0.11%). Forty-nine subjects with a negative result from the first serologic test for tTGA