IgA class reticulin antibodies in dermatitis herpetiformis: a good indicator of jejunal damage.

Fifty patients with dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) were examined. Reticulin antibodies (RA) were found in 34 (68%) patients; 25 (73%) of them had IgA class RA, seven (21%) had IgA and IgG class RA, and two (6%) had IgG class RA. A good correlation was found between the occurrence of RA and the presence of jejunal villous atrophy. Twenty-four (96%) of the patients with subtotal villous atrophy and nine (82%) with partial villous atrophy had RA as compared to only one (7%) of the 14 patients with normal jejunal mucosa. Gluten-free diet treatment caused disappearance of RA in every patient, suggesting that RA measurements can also be used in DH for monitoring adherence to the diet treatment.