Click on the icon on the upper right hand side for the article by Raanan Shamir, MD, Rami Eliakim, MD, Nitza Lahat, PhD, Esther Sobel, MSc and Aaron Lerner, MD, MHA, published in IMAJ.
IMAJ 2002; 7; August; 594-596
Abstract
Background: Celiac disease is common in both children and adults. Small intestinal biopsy is mandatory for establishing a diagnosis. Anti-endomysial antibodies, detected by immunofluorescence, have a sensitivity and specificity close to 100% in the diagnosis of CD. Recently, tissue transglutaminase has been identified as the target autoantigen of antibodies against endomysium, and TTG antibodies are comparable to EMA-IMF in the diagnosis of CD.
Objective: To evaluate a new enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kit for EMA, compared to EMA-IMF and TTG antibodies in the diagnosis of CD.
Methods: Our study population included all subjects with positive EMA-IMF who underwent intestinal biopsy (n=21). From the same sera, TTG antibodies and EMA-ELISA were determined, and all antibody results were compared to the biopsy findings.
Results: EMA-IMF was able to predict biopsy findings of CD in 19 of 21 cases (90.5%). When patients with biopsy findings compatible with CD and positive EMA-IMF (n=19) were tested for EMA-ELISA and TTG antibodies, 18 of the 19 were positive for both EMA-ELISA and TTG antibodies. A significant correlation was found between EMA-ELISA and TTG antibody titers (r = 0.74, P < 0.001).
Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that EMA-ELISA is comparable to TTG antibodies in the diagnosis of CD, and supports the use of EMA-ELISA as a serologic marker for this disease.
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