Urine test for gluten ingestion

Making sure a patient’s diet is completely gluten-free is critical for these patients to avoid gut mucosal damage.  It is thought that perhaps more than half of patients who say they are totally gluten free are actually getting in gluten by accidental contamination.  An article in Gut tells of a new urine test for celiac compliance.

Basically, researchers checked urine samples from 76 healthy individuals and 58 patients with celiac disease under different gluten dietary conditions.

GIP (gluten immunogenic peptides) was detectable in healthy individuals in as little as 4 hours and showed up for 2 days after a single gluten intake.

Results showed, “the urine assay revealed infringement of the GFD in about 50% of the patients. Analysis of duodenal biopsies revealed that most of patients with CD (89%) with no villous atrophy had no detectable GIP in urine, while all patients with quantifiable GIP in urine showed incomplete intestinal mucosa recovery.”