Background: Determination of tissue transglutaminase auto-antibodies (tTGAA) has been shown to be a sensitive and specific diagnostic tool for large-scale screening for celiac disease. The purpose of this study was to measure tissue tTGAA in cord blood in infants that later developed celiac disease to evaluate if this assay could serve as a predictive tool for later development of celiac disease.
Methods: IgG tTGAA were analyzed in cord blood through immunoprecipitation from 51 future celiac patients and 102 age-matched controls. Cut-off level was set at 0.040.
Results: No difference in tTGAA levels was found between cord blood from infants who later developed celiac disease and controls (P = 0.746). 2/51 future celiac patients (3.9%) had levels above cut-off-value in cord blood, while 3/102 controls were positive (2.9%) (P = 1.000). tTGAA levels were higher in the 1980s and at the beginning of the 1990s than they have been in recent years (P = 0.003).
Conclusions: Determination of tissue tTGAA in cord blood does not predict future celiac disease in children. tTGAA levels vary with time, which should be considered in retrospective studies analyzing tTGAA.