Table 1.

 Clinical picture at diagnosis of coeliac disease and results of diagnostic procedures for the 56 reviewed patients who subsequently developed malignant lymphomas

	No of patients (%) (n = 56)
Symptoms and signs at coeliac disease diagnosis
Diarrhoea	40 (71)
Weight loss	28 (50)
Abdominal discomfort	12 (21)
Malabsorption (iron, folate, cobalamin, xylos, etc)	36 (64)
Results of diagnostic tests
Villous atrophy in duodenal biopsy	54 (96)
High antigliadin antibody titres	8 (14)*
Symptomatic response to gluten free diet	45 (80)†
Histological response to gluten free diet	16 (29)‡

*An antigliadin antibody test was carried out in only eight patients.

†One case was not treated with a gluten free diet, and for one case information on diet effects was missing

‡A second biopsy to evaluate histological recovery was taken in 20 (36%) cases.