Intraepithelial Lymphogram in the Diagnosis of Celiac Disease in Adult Patients: A Validation Cohort

Celiac disease is a gluten-related pathology, highly prevalent and heterogeneous in its clinical presentation, which leads to delays in diagnosis and misdiagnosis. The analysis of duodenal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) by flow cytometry (lymphogram) is emerging as a discriminative tool in the diagnosis of various forms of celiac disease (CD).

The aim of this study was to validate IEL lymphogram performance in the largest adult series to our knowledge, in support of its use as a diagnostic tool and as a biomarker of the dynamic celiac process.

This was a retrospective study including 768 adult patients (217 with active CD, 195 on a gluten-free diet, 15 potential CD patients, and 411 non-celiac controls). The IEL subset cut-off values were established to calculate the diagnostic accuracy of the lymphogram.

A complete celiac lymphogram profile (≥14% increase in T cell receptor [TCR]γδ IELs and simultaneous ≤4% decrease in surface-negative CD3 [sCD3^-] IELs) was strongly associated with active and potential forms in over 80% of the confirmed patients with CD, whereas the remaining patients with CD had partial lymphogram profiles (≥14% increase in TCRγδ or ≤4% decrease in sCD3^- IELs), with lower diagnostic certainty. None of these patients had a non-celiac lymphogram. Quantifying the TCRγδ versus sCD3^- imbalance as a ratio (≥5) is a discriminative index to discard or suspect CD at diagnosis.

We have validated the IEL lymphogram's diagnostic efficiency (79% sensitivity, 98% specificity), with an LR+ accuracy of 36.2. As expected, the increase in TCRγδ IELs is a reliable marker for celiac enteropathy, while changes in sCD3^- IEL levels throughout the dynamic CD process are useful biomarkers of mucosal lesions.