Celiac disease in Tunisia: serological screening in healthy blood donors.
BACKGROUND
Recent epidemiological studies in Europe and in USA using antigliadin antibodies and antiendomysium antibodies for initial screening have shown that the overall prevalence of celiac disease (CD) is about 1:200 (0.5%).


OBJECTIVE
To screen for CD in healthy blood donors in Tunisia.


METHODS
Sera from 2500 healthy blood donors (median age: 21 years, 70% men and 30% women) were screened for IgG-antigliadin antibodies and IgA-antigliadin antibodies with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. All sera with positive antigliadin antibodies were tested for antiendomysium antibodies using human umbilical cord cryosections as substrate.


RESULTS
Seven healthy blood donors (median age: 21 years; four men, three women) have antiendomysium antibodies. The prevalence of antiendomysium antibodies in healthy blood donors in Tunisia is 1:355 (0.28%).


CONCLUSIONS
On the basis of a high specificity of the antiendomysium antibodies, it is likely that the seven blood donors identified in this study have CD. These data suggest that CD is frequent in Tunisia.
Mankaï
A
A
Faculty of Pharmacy, Monastir, Tunisia.
Landolsi
H
H
Chahed
A
A
Gueddah
L
L
Limem
M
M
Ben Abdessalem
M
M
Yacoub-Jemni
S
S
Ghannem
H
H
Jeddi
M
M
Ghedira
I
I
D000328:Adult; D001782:Blood Donors; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000592:standards; D002446:Celiac Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D005903:Gliadin / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007070:Immunoglobulin A / Q000097:blood; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012016:Reference Values; D014416:Tunisia / Q000453:epidemiology
D007070:Immunoglobulin A; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D005903:Gliadin