Subclinical celiac disease and gluten sensitivity

Atypical presentation is the most common form of celiac disease (CD). Although the terminologies like latent, silent and potential have expressed different aspects of clinical and pathological behaviour of CD, they also have contributed in some extent to confusion between clinicians and patients due to the multiple definitions and uncertainty around them. In the light of new advances and the discovery of entities such as non-celiac gluten sensitivity, using subclinical instead of silent and atypical instead of potential/latent may simplify the understanding behind the clinical behaviour of atypical CD. The evidence behind a lower threshold for considering a gluten free diet (GFD) in non-celiac gluten sensitive patients would strongly support adjusting the terminologies to treatable clinicopathological conditions. © 2011 RIGLD, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases.