Dear Marla, Thanks for alerting us to the issue of Pediatrics. I found some of the information interesting. I was, however, quite bothered by the fact that they lumped celiac under the "allergy' and that they did not seem to be up to date on many of the diagnostic tools available today. My husband has celiac disease. I and my brother have a casein autoimmunity. Both will not be seen on an IgE test as they aren't not allergies mediated by mast cells. They are more to be understood as other autoimmune diseases such as juvenile diabetes. Celiac is detected by IgA and IgG antibodies. In the case of celiac also by tissue transglutamanese tests. In addition, celiac risk can be determined by genetic tests. Current research studies indicated that 1/122 people who appear health may have celiac disease and 1/56 with symptoms may have celiac disease. This can be even higher with other risk factors considered. The gold standard for diagnosis of celiac is an endoscopy which will find destruction of the villi of the small intestine. This is now not done in all cases if the tests are all positive. Tests are usually handled by the gastroenterologist and not by allergists, who, judging from the articles, are not keeping up with the literature at all. Recent research has been published in the Archives of Internal Medicine and the New England Journal of Medicine. This is not to minimize the effects of real allergies, but to clarify that digestive problems which do not present in the manner of classic allergies should be evaluated by a well trained gastroenterologist or a pediatric gastroenterologist. University of Chicago, University of Maryland at Baltimore and Columbia Presbyterian all have celiac centers. Celiac can have many serious effects on children including causing seizures. Irma De Bruyn, M. Ed. Licensed Educational Psychologist Nationally Certified School Psychologist ( recently retired from the Norwood Public Schools) -----Original Message----- From: Marla Shapiro [SMTP:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Monday, June 23, 2003 12:28 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: great info hi, y'all.... the June 2003 supplement to the professional journal Pediatrics (Vol. 111 = Issue sup 1) consists of what looks like a fabulous series of articles on = food allergies. even tho it's geared towards professionals & pediatrics, = looks like the articles might be helpful to all of us. there are a number of articles on topics near & dear to our hearts like: = mucosal immunity, anaphylaxis & emergency treatment, clinical aspects of = gastrointestinal food allergy (FA), skin manifestations of FA, respiratory = manifestations of FA, natural history of FA, diagnostic evaluations, = nutritional management, FA avoidance, & future approaches. HTH, marla Marla Shapiro, Ph.D. MSC 5A0622 Regents Center for Learning Disorders Georgia State University 33 Gilmer Street SE, Unit 5 Atlanta, GA 30303-3085