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     Authors of a study conducted in
Italy (Gut 2000;46:332-335) advocate
testing pregnant women for celiac.  The
authors state in their abstract
(Medline, public domain) that "Coeliac
disease is considerably more common than
most of the diseases for which pregnant
women are routinely screened."

     The authors state that "Up to 50%
of women with untreated coeliac disease
experience miscarriage or an
unfavourable outcome of pregnancy. In
most cases, after 6-12 months of a
gluten free diet, no excess of
unfavourable outcome of pregnancy is
observed."

     Please note that the study was done
in Italy, that the paragraph above
referring to pregnancy complications
refers to UNTREATED celiac disease.

Sally Lopez