Nutritional status in adolescents and young adults with screen-detected celiac disease.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the nutritional status in patients with screen-detected celiac disease (CD).


METHODS
Nutritional status was assessed by serum tests and anthropometric measures in 26 subjects (16 to 25 years of age) with biopsy-proven CD and 29 healthy control subjects (16 to 21 years of age) with negative tissue transglutaminase antibodies (16 to 22 years of age); all the subjects were selected from the cohort of 3654 schoolchildren.


RESULTS
Compared with control subjects, CD patients had lower median values of whole blood folic acid (91 versus 109 nmol/L; P = 0.01), serum ferritin (14 versus 27 microg/L; P = 0.028) and pre-albumin (0.21 versus 0.28 g/L; P </= 0.001) and higher transferrin receptor (1.3 versus 1.1; P = 0.008) and serum transferrin receptor-ferritin index (1.2 versus 0.7; P = 0.006). Folic acid concentration was subnormal in 31% of the CD subjects (versus 14% of the controls) and iron status (transferrin receptor-ferritin index) was subnormal in 30% (versus 14%). Body mass index was not different in females of the CD and control groups (22 versus 22 kg/m2) or in the males of the respective groups (25 versus 24 kg/m2). Females with CD were shorter than the controls (mean 162 versus 167 cm; P = 0.018), but no difference was found in males. No association was found between the nutritional status and the markers of mucosal injury (villous-crypt measures), but titer of transglutaminase was associated with whole blood folic acid (r = -0.5; P = 0.016) and with transferrin receptor-ferritin index (r = 0.4, P = 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
One third of screen-detected adolescent CD subjects have abnormalities in folate or iron status that call for early diagnosis and dietary treatment of the disease to prevent nutritional deficiencies.
Haapalahti
Mila
M
Department of Pediatrics, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland. mila.haapalahti@oulu.fi
Kulmala
Petri
P
Karttunen
Tuomo J
TJ
Paajanen
Laura
L
Laurila
Kaija
K
Mäki
Markku
M
Mykkänen
Hannu
H
Kokkonen
Jorma
J
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001706:Biopsy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002446:Celiac Disease / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005492:Folic Acid / Q000097:blood*; D005494:Folic Acid Deficiency / Q000097:blood / Q000517:prevention & control; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000097:blood*; D000090463:Iron Deficiencies; D008297:Male; D009752:Nutritional Status
D005492:Folic Acid; D007501:Iron