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Disease: Celiac Disease
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Celiac disease is a digestive disease that damages the small intestine and interferes with absorption of nutrients from food. People who have celiac disease cannot tolerate a protein called gluten, which is found in wheat, rye, barley, and possibly oats. When people with celiac disease eat foods containing gluten, their immune system responds by damaging the small intestine. Specifically, tiny fingerlike protrusions, called villi, on the lining of the small intestine are lost. Nutrients from food are absorbed into the bloodstream through these villi. Without villi, a person becomes malnourished -- regardless of the quantity of food eaten.
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You probably have celiac disease if your symptoms go way when you follow a strict gluten-free diet. If you have dermatitis herpetiformis you have celiac disease. Blood tests can help your doctor diagnose this disease. It's necessary to have these blood tests before you start a gluten free-diet. The diagnosis can be confirmed with a biopsy (taking a piece of tissue using a thin tube that is put into your intestines).
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To diagnose DH, the doctor will test the person’s blood for autoantibodies related to celiac disease and will biopsy the person’s skin. If the antibody tests are positive and the skin biopsy has the typical findings of DH, patients do not need to have an intestinal biopsy. Both the skin disease and the intestinal disease respond to a gluten-free diet and recur if gluten is added back into the diet. In addition, the rash symptoms can be controlled with medications such as dapsone (4’,4’diamino-diphenylsuphone). However, dapsone does not treat the intestinal condition and people with DH should ... maintain a gluten-free diet.
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Dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) is a severe itchy, blistering skin disease caused by gluten intolerance. DH is related to celiac disease since both are autoimmune disorders caused by gluten intolerance, but they are separate diseases. The rash usually occurs on the elbows, knees, and buttocks. Although people with DH do not usually have digestive symptoms, they often have the same intestinal damage as people with celiac disease.
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If the tests and symptoms suggest celiac disease, the doctor will perform a small bowel biopsy. During the biopsy, the doctor removes a tiny piece of tissue from the small intestine to check for damage to the villi. To obtain the tissue sample, the doctor eases a long, thin tube called an endoscope through the mouth and stomach into the small intestine. Using instruments passed through the endoscope, the doctor then takes the sample.
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Gluten damages the intestines of people with celiac disease. This damage keeps your body from taking in many of the nutrients in the food you eat. These include vitamins, calcium, protein, carbohydrates, fats and other important nutrients. Your body can't work well without these nutrients.
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Celiac Disease