[Intolerance of gluten--a new disease or undiagnosed celiac disease].

The prevalence of celiac disease is about 1% in the population and is growing due to the wide use of immunological methods of diagnosis. In recent years, in-depth research of the celiac disease has led not only to an increase in the number of patients with celiac disease, but also to the emergence of a broad spectrum of diseases associated with the ingestion of gluten. In this regard, a new pathology, known as "gluten intolerance or gluten sensitivity", attracted special attention of researchers. Studies in recent years have established that patients with this pathology may have both gastrointestinal symptoms and extraintestinal manifestations. Examinations of such patients usually do not find histological changes of the mucous membrane of the small intestine and autoimmune antibodies (to tissue transglutaminase (tTG) and endomysial (EMA)); however an increased level of gliadin antibodies (AGA) is often observed. Allergy to gluten is also absent. A gluten-free diet for such patients, like in case of the celiac disease, leads to the disappearance of clinical symptoms. Exact criteria for the diagnosis of this nosology have not been identified so far, but most researchers believe that prevalence of "gluten intolerance" is much higher than that of celiac disease.