Jejunal villous changes associated with farmer's lung.

Eighty-one patients with farmer's lung were screened for evidence of coeliac disease by assessing their clinical features, haemoglobin indices, serum vitamin B12 and folic acid levels. HLA typing was carried out and the frequency of antireticulin and other autoantibodies was determined. Two out of 21 patients selected for jejunal biopsy had subtotal villous atrophy, a further 6 had partial villous atrophy and 8 out of 21 had increased lamina propria cellularity. The group as a whole had an increased number of intra-epithelial lymphocytes in the jejunal musosa. Sera of 7 out of 81 patients contained antireticulin antibody compared with 2 of 81 control subjects, a difference without significance. Other autoantibodies were not more frequent in the patient than in the control group and were of normal incidence. HLA antigens were also similar in both groups.