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Coeliac disease largely undiagnosed: study

Only one in five coeliacs in Australia are aware they have the disease a new study has found.
Only one in five coeliacs in Australia are aware they have the disease a new study has found.Peter Morris

A Melbourne study reveals that coeliac disease is one of the most under-diagnosed diseases in Australia.

The disease is 40 per cent more prevalent in women and 25 per cent more prevalent in men than past statistics have indicated, the study shows.

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It also reveals that just one in five coeliacs are aware they have the illness, in which the immune system reacts abnormally to gluten.

The findings, based on testing 2500 Australians, used a new approach of combining a genetic test with a panel of traditional antibody tests, which measure the body's immune response to gluten.

Lead researcher Dr Jason Tye-Din, an immunologist at Victoria's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, says this method increases the accuracy of testing, decreases overall medical costs by reducing invasive diagnostic tests, and helps patients avoid medically unnecessary use of a gluten-free diet.

"Currently, bowel biopsies are recommended for anybody with positive antibody tests," Dr Tye-Din said.

"In this study, the inclusion of a simple genetic test helped identify a substantial number of people whose antibody tests were falsely positive and who did not actually require a bowel biopsy to test for the possibility of coeliac disease."

AAP

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