[A new procedure for evaluating the severity of childhood celiac disease]

The paper describes a new procedure for evaluating the severity of childhood celiac disease, the basis of which is to determine the salivary activity of the enzyme ornithine decarboxylase (ODC). The salivary ODC activity index of 0.0001 to 0.0080 ncat/ml suggests severe celiac disease; that of 0.0081-0.0145 and 0.0146-0.0410 ncat/ml indicates its moderate and mild forms, respectively. The development of this procedure is urgent since the typical forms of celiac disease, which make the determination of the degree of the disease difficult in most cases.