Potential Celiac Disease: Outcomes in Symptomatic and Asymptomatic Adults

The phrase “potential celiac disease” (PCD) characterizes patients with positive antiendomysial antibodies who have either normal small-intestine histology or only an increase in intraepithelial lymphocytes — but who have no villous atrophy. To further characterize this disorder in adults, researchers in Italy prospectively studied 77 adults with PCD (77% women; median age, 33 years).

Sixty-one patients (79%) were symptomatic: 10 had the classic phenotype (diarrhea and weight loss); 51 had the nonclassic phenotype (i.e., having one or more of the following: iron deficiency, folate deficiency, osteopenia, aphthous stomatitis, irritable bowel syndrome, gastroesophageal reflux disease, elevated transaminase levels, or recurrent miscarriages). C…