What is refractory celiac disease?

Hard to treat: "refractory" is a fancy medical term for something that is hard to treat. In other words, the disease is not getting any better using standard treatment. In this case, it's talking about celiac disease, or gluten intolerance.

Symptoms return: Refractory celiac disease is when symptoms of celiac disease return and are persistent even on a gluten free diet. Patients should be evaluated by their gastroenterologist to make sure the symptoms are not related to unknown gluten exposure from "hidden gluten" or the early signs of intestinal lymphoma.

Therapy not working: The treatment for celiac disease is a gluten-free diet. Refractory celiac disease is when a patient still has symptoms after being on a strictly gluten-free diet for one year. The patient may or may not have initially improved on the diet.

Celiac Disease: It means that the patient is still experiencing symptoms and side effects of the celiac disease despite disease modifying changes in diet (avoidance of gluten), lifestyle and possibly medication.