title: Coeliac crisis in adults: report of two cases.
abstract: Adult coeliac disease, in contrast to its childhood counterpart, almost always has an indolent course with a wider spectrum of clinical manifestations. Approximately half of the patients have no overt gastrointestinal symptoms and many are asymptomatic. A rare and life-threatening complication, affecting mainly children younger than 2 years of age, is the so-called coeliac crisis, a term that applies to profuse diarrhoea leading to dehydration, hypokalemia, and acidosis. We report here two cases of adult coeliac disease that presented as coeliac crisis. Coeliac disease should be a differential diagnosis in adult patients with severe acute diarrhoea and acidosis, although a rare presentation.
authors.affiliation: Division of Gastroenterology, Numune Education and Training Hospital, Ankara, Turkey. er72@hotmail.com
authors.forename: Ersan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ozaslan
authors.forename: Tankut
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Köseoğlu
authors.forename: Burçak
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kayhan
mesh_terms: D000138:Acidosis / Q000209:etiology*; D000368:Aged; D002446:Celiac Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000209:etiology*; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007008:Hypokalemia / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016896:Treatment Outcome