HLA typing in patients with villous atrophy: A comparison of HLA frequency between patents with celiac disease and patients with villous atrophy unrelated to gluten consumption.

Celiac Disease (CD) is a gluten-dependent enteropathy with small bowel villous atrophy (VA), well known to be strongly associated with genes codifying HLA DQ2 and DQ8 molecules and with circulating celiac antibodies. Since virtually all patients with CD carry these genes and present these antibodies, they are part of the diagnostic work up for these condition: HLA typing can be used to exclude CD, while celiac antibodies are a cornerstone of its diagnosis. Although CD is certainly the most common form of VA, it is not the only one, and other forms of VA unrelated to CD exist. The diagnosis of these forms of VA unrelated to CD can be very difficult especially because of the existence of a seronegative form of CD, i.e. a form of CD that do respond to a gluten-free diet but without circulating antibodies. So, the aim of the present work is to investigate whether the differential diagnosis of the various forms of Non Celiac Villous Atrophy can be based on HLA typing.

Tipizzazione di HLA in pazienti con atrofia dei villi: Un confronto della frequenza HLA tra pazienti con malattia celiaca e pazienti con atrofia dei villi non correlata al consumo di glutine