Coeliac disease screening among a large cohort of overweight/obese children.

Coeliac disease (CD) is a chronic, gluten-dependent enteropathy with a prevalence of approximately 1% in Western countries. Up to now, CD has been described only in sporadic cases of obesity. Our study aimed to evaluate retrospectively CD prevalence in a large series of overweight/obese children and adolescents. Among the 1527 overweight/obese children and adolescents consecutively evaluated, 17 (7 boys, 1.11%) were positive for serology and showed villous atrophy. In all of the patients with CD a well-balanced gluten-free diet was started, and a loss of weight rapidly obtained. Our study demonstrates that CD prevalence in overweight/obese children is similar to the general paediatric population in Italy.

Anti-transglutaminase immunoreactivity and histological lesions of the duodenum in coeliac patients.

Coeliac disease (CD) is characterized by several markers, including anti-transglutaminase auto-antibodies (tTGAb) directed against multiple epitopes of the gliadin protein. We aimed to investigate the correlation among CD duodenal lesions, tTGAb titres and the immunoreactivity against tTG constructs. A total of 345 CD patients (209 females, 136 males, overall median age: 7.3 years) were tested for full-length (fl) tTGAb with a fluid-phase radioimmunoassay. Out of the total, 231 patients were also tested for immunoreactivity against tTG fragments (F1: a.a. 227-687 and F2: a.a. 473-687). Patients were classified according to diffuse (D), patchy (P) or bulb (B) histological lesions. All sera were found fltTGAb positive. Patients with D, P and B lesions had a mean Ab index of 0.84±0.39, 0.57±0.39 and 0.45±0.24, respectively. Mean tTGAb titre varied between D and localized (P+B) patients (0.84±0.39 versus 0.52±0.34, P < 0.0001). Overall, 86.1% of patients were F1 auto-antibody (F1Ab) positive (D: 89%, P: 75%, B: 40%; D versus P+B: P = 0.004) and 49% of patients were F2 auto-antibody (F2Ab) positive (D: 53%, P: 19%, B: 10%; D versus P+B: P = 0.0006). Of the D patients 50.7% showed combined F1Ab-F2Ab (D versus P+B: P = 0.001), whereas 60% of B patients were negative for both F1Ab and F2Ab (B versus D: P < 0.0001). Coeliac-specific tTGAb immunoreactivity correlates with the grading and extension of histological duodenal lesions in CD patients at diagnosis. The immunoreactivity against single and combined tTG fragments is significantly higher in patients with D lesions. This is the first evidence of a distinct coeliac-specific immunoreactivity in patients with different duodenal involvement.

Celiac disease in a large cohort of children and adolescents with recurrent headache: A retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: The clinical picture of celiac disease is changing with the emergence of subclinical forms and growing evidence reporting associated neurological disorders. AIMS: To establish the prevalence of celiac disease in children suffering from recurrent headache. METHODS: In our retrospective study we collected charts from 1131 children attending our tertiary care Centre for Paediatric Headache over the period 2001-2012. They were screened for celiac disease and positive patients were referred to our Operative Unit for Coeliac disease and confirmed positive children underwent upper endoscopy with multiple duodenal biopsies. Celiac children started a gluten-free diet. RESULTS: 883 children (481 females; median age, 9.8 years, range 3-19) performed celiac disease screening, and among them, 11 children (7 females; median age, 8.2 years, range: 4.8-13.9) were diagnosed with celiac disease. Seven children (5 females, median age, 11.9 years, range: 10.3-13.9) had been diagnosed as celiac prior to the neurological evaluation. The prevalence of celiac disease in our sample is 2.04% vs. 1.2% of the general population (p=0.034). CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates, on a large series, that celiac disease prevalence is doubled in patients with chronic headache. Screening for celiac disease could be advised as part of the diagnostic work-up in these paediatric patients, particularly among pharmacological non-responders.