False-positive tissue transglutaminase antibody levels occur in HIV-positive patients: HLA typing is essential

摘要

HIV enteropathy (with villous atrophy) is well described1'2 but there are few contemporary reports describing the relationship between histo-logical findings, celiac serology (Tissue Transglutaminase Antibody: TTG & Endomysial Antibody: EMA) and HLA typing. We performed celiac serology and HLA typing in 26 HIV-positive patients (age range 28 to 52, mean age 42 y and 15/26 male) referred with chronic diarrhea. In this symptomatic group, there were 7 cases of villous atrophy (7/26) Table 1. Of these 4/7 patients had positive serology and were found to have celiac disease. However, there were 2 cases with positive TTG antibodies (TTG Ab > 15 U/mL) but a negative HLA typing for DQ2 or DQ8. The seventh case had both negative celiac serology and HLA typing.