Clinical evolution of celiac disease in Italy 1982-2002

The aim of this work is to assess how the clinical features of celiac disease have changed in Italy after the widespread introduction of serologic tests in 1993.

Twenty Italian Clinical Centers collected information from 1982 until 2002 on 1968 patients older than 18 years diagnosed with celiac disease.

The results show that the incidence of atypical and silent cases of celiac disease has increased after the wider availability of serological test, which has allowed earlier diagnosis and treatment.

This paper provides a view on the evolution of the clinical features of celiac disease in Italy over 2 decades. The relevance of the analysis is supported by the fact that Italy is one of the countries with the highest incidence of celiac disease. These findings underline the importance of a timely diagnosis of celiac disease.