Screening for Autoantibodies to Tissue Transglutaminase Reveals a Low Prevalence of Celiac Disease in Blood Donors with Cryptogenic Hypertransaminasemia

Patients with chronic cryptogenic hypertransaminasemia are at high risk of developing celiac disease (CD). In fact, among the various serological disorders, CD patients at onset frequently present hypertransaminasemia. In this study, we evaluated usefulness and reliability of the new test for antitissue transglutaminase (tTG) in screening for CD as well as in estimating the prevalence of CD in a population of blood donors presenting unexplained hypertransaminasemia at donation. Controls were 180 consecutive healthy donors without hypertransaminasemia and 20 CD patients with known antiendomysial antibody (EmA) positivity. Out of 22,204 blood donors over a period of 2 years, we found 258 subj…