Celiac disease in dyspeptic patients

  Introduction: The screening of patients with dyspepsia, may allow an early identification of affected individuals. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of celiac disease in dyspeptic patients submitted to routine diagnostic upper gastrointestinal endoscopy.   Materials and Methods: From November 2007 to October 2008, 407 patients who underwent endoscopy for any reason (193 male, 214 women mean age36.1 years) were studied in this work. Histological characteristics in duodenal biopsy specimens for celiac disease were evaluated according to the modified Marsh Classification1999. In addition, all patients were tested for total immunoglobulin A and anti-transglutaminase (tTG) antibodies. The patients with IgA deficiency were tested with IgG tTG.   Results: Duodenal histology showed the malabsorption pattern (Marsh I-IIIc) in 26 (6.4%) cases and 33 cases had serological positive test for tTGA. In term of the serological analysis, 10 out of 33 tTGA positive patients had malabsorption pattern (Marsh I,-IIIc), and all of them had a positive tTGA (2.45%). Four of the 407 recruited patients were IgA deficient and none of them were positive for IgG tTG.   Conclusion: In this study, about 6.4% of patients had malabsorption pattern and 8.1 % presented with positive serology for CD. However, both histology and serology were positive in 10/407 (2.45%). The high prevalence of celiac among dyspeptic symptomatic individuals indicates that they are a higher risk group for developing celiac disease.