No single genetic marker exists. Symptoms and Signs Celiac disease may be asymptomatic. Celiac disease may cause short stature, infertility, or recurrent aphthous stomatitis or be associated with dermatitis herpetiformis, sometimes without diarrhea. There is no typical presentation. Without these direct clues, celiac disease may not be suspected.
Symptoms are absent in children until they eat food containing gluten.
Iron-deficiency anemia develops, and if hypoproteinemia is severe enough, edema appears. Family incidence is a valuable clue. Also, an adult patient may not recollect childhood disease, although GI disease may have led to smaller stature compared with siblings and mild bowing deformities of the long bones. The disease may be unmasked after partial gastrectomy. Jejunal biopsy can be performed even in small infants, but to obviate the risk of bowel perforation, only an experienced investigator should perform the test.