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                         Newsletter Roundup
                         ------------------
                        Compiled by Jim Lyles

This section contains excerpts from newsletters produced by other
celiac groups.


......................................................................
:                                                                    :
:           Excerpts from the Westchester CS Support Group           :
:           ----------------------------------------------           :
: newsletter: Aug. 1998     Leslie Elsner and Sue Goldstein, editors :
:                                                      9 Salem Place :
:                                            White Plains, NY  10605 :
:....................................................................:

Gluten-Sensitivity and Autoimmunity:  This information comes to us
from the International Conference on Changing Features of Coeliac
Disease, as reported by Sue Goldstein.

It has been established that there is a higher prevalence of
autoimmune disease among patients with celiac disease (CD), and the
people with autoimmune diseases have an increased prevalence of CD.
Alessendro Ventura, University of Trieste, Italy, pointed out that
this increased prevalence has been "...ascribed to shared genetically
predisposing factors, especially some HLA antigens."<12>  However,
Ventura and other presenters at the conference discussed an intriguing
hypothesis regarding the relationship between gluten sensitivity and
autoimmunity.

Ventura cited an Italian study that found the higher prevalence of
autoimmune diseases among adolescents with CD to be strongly dependent
on the age of diagnosis of CD.  "In fact, CD patients exposed to
gluten for less than two years do not show a significantly higher
prevalence of autoimmune diseases than controls, whereas the
prevalence of autoimmune disorders increases, proportionally, to age
at diagnosis, up to more than 25% in the population of CD patients
exposed to gluten for more than 10 years," stated Ventura.<13>

Does the risk factor of presenting with another autoimmune disease
possibly decrease with an earlier diagnosis of CD?  Ventura reported
that, "As a whole, our preliminary data collected from coeliac
subjects show an increased prevalence of different types of
autoantibodies, which mostly disappear on a gluten-free (GF) diet.
These data, together with the demonstration that an increased
prevalence of autoimmune diseases in coeliac patients depends on the
duration of gluten exposure, largely supports the assumption that the
range of gluten-dependent autoimmune diseases, by which genetically
predisposed subjects can be affected, goes well beyond the classic
enteropathy."<14>

The study of patients with dermatitis herpetiformis (DH) has also
prompted discussion of the relationship between autoimmunity and
gluten sensitivity.  Timo Reunala, Dept.  of Dermatology, University
Hospitals of Tampere and Helsinki, Finland reported, "Interestingly,
we found that associated autoimmune diseases began more often before
than after the diagnosis of DH suggesting that GF diet treatment has a
protective effect against the development of autoimmune disease in DH
and CD."<15>

The connection between autoimmune thyroid disease and gluten
sensitivity was also discussed in the conclusions of an abstract by
Berti, et al, from Trieste, Italy.  "CD prevalence of autoimmune
diseases in coeliac patients may be associated with the duration of
gluten exposure; it is likely that thyroiditis in our patients
resulted from a late CD diagnosis."<16>