Atypical coeliac disease
In the past years, the clinical picture of coeliac disease has acquired a «vague» character and the habitual dyspeptic disorders are becoming more rare. The symptoms of enteropathy might manifest themselves by lesions of practically any system of the body, often leaving out the gastrointestinal tract. In this connection, the overwhelming majority of cases of atypical coeliac disease remain undiagnosed or taken by clinicians for other diseases. The article describes a clinical case of a 17-year-old girl with a whole symptom-complex of lesions of the digestive, nervous, reproductive and other systems of the body, which unanticipatedly were manifestations of gluten enteropathy, but the correct diagnosis was made only 12 years after the appearance of the first complaints. It is noteworthy that the girl's main complaints are very unspecific. Most of these disorders are conditioned by malabsorption syndrome and associated deficiencies. The basic treatment of coeliac disease is a gluten-free diet, the administration of which leads to a complete or partial recovery of the patient. Epidemiological survey of the past years is indicative of a growing incidence of coeliac disease, and its atypical (asymptomatic) forms occur significantly more often than typical ones. In this connection, early recognition of the changeable character of manifestations of this disease is very important.