Serological screening for celiac disease in adult Chinese patients with diarrhea predominant irritable bowel syndrome

Celiac disease (CD) is common in Caucasians, but thought to be rare in Asians. Our aim was to determine the prevalence of CD in Chinese patients with chronic diarrhea predominant irritable bowel syndrome (IBS-D). From July 2010 to August 2012, 395 adult patients with IBS-D and 363 age and sex-matched healthy controls were recruited in Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University and Xiaogan Central Hospital in Hubei province, central China. Patients with IBS-D were diagnosed according to the Rome III criteria. Serum Immunoglobulin (IgA/IgG) anti-human tissue transglutaminase (anti-htTG)-deamidated gliadin peptide (DGP) antibodies were measured in a single ELISA (QUANTA Lite h-TTG/ DGP Screen). Upper endoscopy with duodenal biopsies and HLADQA1 and HLA-DQB1 genotyping were performed in seropositive subjects and a gluten-free diet was prescribed. Seven IBS-D patients (7/395, 1.77%) and 2 healthy controls (2/363, 0.55%), were positive for anti-htTG/DGP antibodies. Of these 9 cases, 1 was lost to follow-up, 3 were suspected to have CD and 5 were eventually diagnosed as CD with intestinal histological lesions classified as Marsh Type II in 2 and Type III in 3. Of these 5 diagnosed CD patients, 4 (4/395, 1.01%) were from the IBS-D group and 1 (1/363, 0.28%) from the healthy control had asymptomatic CD. Two Type III CD patients with relatively high titers in the serologic assay were homozygous and heterozygous for haplotype HLA-DQA1 03-DQB1 03:03 (HLA-DQ9.3), respectively. In the present study, CD was present in 1.01% of patients with IBSD and in 0.28% of the control group. We like to suggest that the haplotype HLA-DQA103-DQB1 03:03 (HLA-DQ9.3), which is common in Chinese, is a new susceptibility factor for CD in China. Larger screening and genetic studies are needed in the Chinese population of different regions.

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