Background: An improvement in screening for celiac disease has recently been described that uses human umbilical cord as a substitute for monkey esophagus to determine IgA endomysium antibodies in adults. As using monkey esophagus is ethically questionable for large-scale screening, we studied whether substitution of umbilical cord would be suitable for pediatric patients as well.
Methods: Serum from 53 children with untreated celiac disease, 22 in remission and 13 on challenge, were screened for antigliadin IgA, antigliadin IgG, and IgA reticulin antibodies, in addition to IgA endomysium antibodies tested both on monkey esophagus and on human umbilical cord. Controls included 20 patients with cow-milk-sensitive enteropathy, 23 with inflammatory bowel disease, and 23 with diabetes mellitus, and 48 patients who were biopsied to exclude celiac disease either because of positive gliadin antibody test or disturbed growth.
Results: Sensitivity (0.94) and specificity (1.0) were similar for umbilical cord and esophageal determinations in active celiac disease. Both substrates detected identical positive cases and neither gave false-positive results. In celiac patients on a gluten-free diet, endomysium antibodies with either substrate were positive in seven identical cases and negative in 15 of 22 cases. Correlations with reticulin antibodies were comparable with human umbilical cord and monkey esophagus (0.83 and 0.85, respectively; Spearman Correlation Section Pair-Wise deletion).
Conclusions: Human umbilical cord is an excellent substitute for monkey esophagus to determine endomysium antibodies in celiac diagnosis in children and adolescents.