No more getting sick to diagnose coeliac disease
Coeliac disease requires patients to completely avoid foods containing gluten, while a gluten intolerance usually allows some leeway. – dpa
Diagnosing coeliac disease has long been an arduous and daunting process in which people thought to have the condition have to eat wheat – the very food that will make them sick if the concerns prove true.
But a new 'game changer' method could make running the gluten gauntlet a thing of the past, according to developers at Australia's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Victoria and Brisbane-based Novoviah Pharmaceuticals.
They claim their 'world-first' blood test can diagnose the disease even among people who switch to gluten-free diets as a precaution.
Published in the medical journal Gastroenterology , the team's work details how 'gluten-specific T-cells can detect coeliac disease, even when no gluten has been eaten'.
Not only could the new test pinpoint who could be 'at risk of severe reactions to gluten', it raises the prospect of preemptive detection of 'silent' disease among those who are asymptomatic.
Around 80% of potential cases worldwide could be going undiagnosed, according to the researchers, who pointed out that 'many people are deterred from seeking a definite diagnosis because they do not want to consume gluten and be sick'.
'This new test promises to simplify and speed up accurate diagnosis, while also avoiding the suffering that comes with eating gluten for extended periods to reactivate coeliac disease,' said WEHI consultant gastroenterologist Associate Professor Dr Jason Tye-Din.
'This breakthrough is deeply personal as it could spare others from the gruelling diagnostic process I had to endure,' said WEHI PhD student Olivia Moscatelli, a member of the research team who was confirmed to have coeliac disease when she was 18.
An immune reaction to the gluten protein found in wheat, rye and barley, coeliac disease damages the intestine and prevents sufferers from absorbing nutrients, with some estimates suggesting that it could affect one in 100 people worldwide. – dpa
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