Screening for Celiac Disease in Rheumatology: HLA First?

HLA genes have been shown to be strongly associated with a large repertoir of autoimmune diseases including Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) and Celiac Disease (CD). The present article will discuss what is the place of performing celiac disease associated serology in face of a rheumatologic patient, when gluten enteropaty is suspected. More specifically, should HLA be done prior to the serology? Unnecessary serial serological CD screening in such rheumatology patients could be avoided by performing an HLA typing, as a long-life marker of genetically CD-susceptible patients.