Nolan Ash: Coeliac Disease
For my first physiology blog I decided to research Coeliac disease. My brother was diagnosed with coeliac in elementary school, so I have always been curious about the condition. Coeliac occurs when ingestion of gluten triggers a heightened autoimmune response. Recent studies suggest coeliac occurs in roughly 1% of individuals, which is higher than previously thought. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to diagnose. This is partially due to lack of reliable tests which diagnose the disease. Testing anti-reticulum bodies and anti-gliadin antibodies lack specificity for diagnosing the Coeliac. Other metrics revealed high false-positive results in patients with other mucosal damage in the gastrointestinal tract. The most accurate method for testing coeliac has been revealed to be Endomysial antibodies (EMA) and anti-tissue transglutaminase antibodies (tTG). Pairing these tests with a duodenal biopsy increases accuracy of diagnosis further. To show further prove the difficulty of diagnosis,...