Persons affected with coeliac disease have small intestine disorder that
makes them unable to absorb nutrients from food. The principal cause of the
disease is toxic influence of dietary gluten. A strict wheat- and gluten-free diet[?] will relieve the symptoms and make a normal life possible.
- Loss of normal villous ("frilly") lining of the small bowel[?]
- Reduced surface area available for absorption
- Coeliac disease improves dramatically when gluten (a protein found in wheat products) is removed from the diet
- Causes malabsorption[?] (diarrhea with bulky pale offensive stools which float)
- Often have secondary iron deficiency[?] or other secondary dietary deficiencies if untreated
- There seems to be an increased lifetime risk of bowel lymphoma
- Runs in families
Characteristic appearance on bowel biopsy.
Patients have gliadin antibodies.
Unknown but probably:
- Partly a genetic suspectibility to the illness (identical twins dont have 100% concordence however).
- together with a environmental agent probably a virus or other infection
- It is associated with other autoimmune disease (these diseases are also probably a combination of suspectibility + infection).
See also: Gastroenterology