S. Devi Rampertab • Gerard E. Mullin
Editors

2014

Celiac disease is an emerging disease. Studies have shown that the prevalence of celiac disease has increased in the last 50 years. Stored serum, collected 50 years ago from mainly 20-year-old white men in the USA (Warren Air Force Base Cohort), had a seroprevalence of tissue transglutaminase and endomysial IgA antibodies of about 0.2 %. Their current day cohorts of 20-year-old or 70-year-old white men have a seroprevalence approaching 1%, a 4- to 5-fold increase [ 1 ]. Similar studies that have compared cohorts over shorter time intervals revealed a similar increase in prevalence in the USA [ 2 ] and Finland [ 3 ]. Worldwide it is now considered that celiac disease occurs in about 1 % of the population [ 4 , 5 ].