Organ-Specific Autoantibodies and Celiac Disease Patients – (10-16-00)

Organ-Specific Autoantibodies and Celiac Disease Patients

This is yet another example of how important it is to determine food allergies and avoid those foods we’re allergic to. Wheat is high on the list of common allergies, along with corn and milk. This article also brings to light the systemic affects of food allergies; effects are not always what a person would normally think of. No hives, no stomach upset. In this study, children allergic to gluten (a protein found in wheat) had evidence of autoimmunity to cells in the thyroid and pancreas. Would this not lead to strong evidence for every patient with suspected hypothyroidism to have a trial of wheat elimination?

J Pediatr 2000;137:263-265 Patients with celiac disease have high levels of diabetes- and thyroid-related autoantibodies that “disappear” when the patients are placed on a gluten-free diet. The finding confirms the high prevalence of organ-specific autoantibodies in patients with celiac disease, and supports the theory that these antibodies are gluten-dependent, Dr. Alessandro Ventura, of the Universita di Trieste, Italy, and colleagues say in the August issue of the Journal of Pediatrics. The investigators tested 90 children with celiac disease for serum antibodies to islet cells, glutamic acid decarboxylase, insulin, and thyroperoxidase. The overall prevalence of diabetes- and thyroid-related autoantibodies was 11.1% and 14.4%, respectively.