The authors are concerned, within the framework of a long-term project, with the growth and b ody composition of patients with coeliac disease after completed growth. Patients where the diagnosis was established early and who were treated on a long-term basis with a gluten-free diet can according the author’s findings fully attain their inherited growth potential. The patients reach middle values of the final height of the contemporary national anthropometric standard. Intersexual differences in SDS of height were not found. Patients with coeliac disease with completed growth are however characterized by stati stically significantly lower values of body weight and body mass index (BMI). Adolescent patients with completed growth are, as compared with the standard of the Czech Republic, slimmer, the deviation cannot be evaluated however as clinically significant. The authors provided evidence that the body composition of adolescent patients with coeliac disease is influenced by „compliance“ with the gluten-free diet - patients who did not adhere strictly to the diet have a significantly lower body weight as compared with patients who adhere to the diet. Patients who adhere strictly to the diet have a significantly higher amount of body fat as compared with the healthy standard as well as with patients not adhering to the diet. Analysis of the body composition revealed that the long-term effect of the gluten-free diet - the altered diet does not have an impact on skeletal growth but only on building of soft tissues. The underweight of patients with coeliac disease is associated with the below average development of musculature, not adipose tissue. The findings, consistent with recent literature published are a contribution to discussions on the optimal character of the gluten-free diet.

        Key words: coeliac disease, growth, body composition, gluten-free diet, diet compliance, adolescence