Treatment of giardiasis reverses "active" coeliac disease to "latent" coeliac disease.

2001

In patients with coeliac disease, a regression of intestinal damage without a gluten-free diet is a very rare event. We describe a young child with diarrhoea, intestinal mucosa atrophy and positive serum anti-endomysial and anti-tissue transglutaminase (anti-tTG) antibodies during intestinal giardiasis infection. He showed normal intestinal mucosa architecture and negative anti-endomysial and anti-tTG antibodies after his giardiasis was cured, although he continued to assume a normal diet. Re-evaluations on a 6-monthly basis showed that he was symptom free, and all haemato-chemical parameters were within normal limits. Three years after the initial diagnosis, a third intestinal biopsy showe…