coeliac

adj

1. (not-comparable)Relating to the abdomen, or to the cavity of the abdomen.

   “Next remove the middle portion of the lesser omentum, and feel for the coeliac axis.”

   “The coeliac plexus is formed by the two interconnecting coeliac ganglia which lie either side of the coeliac artery.”

   “The coeliac ganglia lie on each side of the coeliac trunk.”

2. (abbreviation, alt-of, not-comparable)Abbreviation of coeliac disease; used attributively.

   “The results of skin testing and RAST indicate that most coeliac patients do not have circulating IgE specific for wheat proteins [25, 34, 108].”

   “Most coeliac patients are childen, the symptoms showing when cereals are first introduced in their diet.”

   “Thus more fortunately for most coeliac patients a reliable diagnosis could now be made on the basis of one set of small bowel biopsies as opposed to three.”

noun

1. Someone who has coeliac disease.

   “In all 5 untreated coeliacs as well as the 3 partially treated coeliacs who were in relapse at the time of biopsy, villi were entirely absent.”

   “Hyposplenism in coeliacs does not appear to lead to these diseases.”

   “Instead, anecdotal observations came to dominate the literature, describing adult coeliacs as mentally peculiar, excessively nervous and unstable, depressive, or even schizophrenic (Paulley, 1959; Dohan, 1966).”