Diagnostic Value of Serologic Tests in Celiac Screening

Objectives: celiac disease is one of the malabsorption syndromesleads to growth and development retardation in children. there is notest lonely can definitely diagnose celiac; however, the collection ofclinical findings, serologic tests, intestinal biopsy, and response totreatment may diagnose it. although diagnostic value is variable indifferent studies, they are used a non-invasive and appropriate screeningmethods today. this study aimed to evaluate diagnostic value ofceliac serologic tests in children less than 15-year-old.methods: during two years, this study conducted on children referredto al-zahra hospital (isfahan, iran). all the children who had duodenalbiopsy tests were evaluated in terms of serologic tests and clinicalsymptoms due to suspected celiac. the results were analyzed throughdescriptive statistics, chi-square and fisher’s exact tests using spsssoftware.results: 15.8 percent of children were under 2 years, 37.3 percentbetween age range of 2 to 12 years and 10.5 percent were above 12years. 8.1 percent of children with negative anti-endomysial antibody(ema) suffered from celiac; while 20.0 percent of children with positiveema suffered from celiac. 15.4 percent of children with negativeanti-gliadin antibody (aga) had celiac; while 11.6 percent of thosewith positive aga suffered from it. 11.1 percent of those with negativetissue transglutaminase antibody (ttg) and 37.5 percent with positivettg suffered from celiac.conclusions: according to our study results, there is no correlationbetween gastrointestinal symptoms such as vomiting diarrhea, anorexia,bulimia, and failure to thrive (fft) with celiac. ttg was the bestscreening test method to diagnose celiac disease and other tests such asaga and ema do not have high diagnostic value.