Prevalence of celiac disease among patients with Behcet's disease in Iran.
BACKGROUND
Behcet's disease and Celiac disease, both common in Iran, share many immunopathogenic and clinical features. Based on the possible association between these two diseases, this study is designed to determine the frequency of non-diagnosed celiac disease in patients with Behcet's disease.


METHODS
The sera of 288 consecutive patients with Behcet's disease were screened with anti-endomysial antibody and anti-tissue transglutaminase antibody for celiac disease. Those with a positive test underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and duodenal biopsies to confirm the diagnosis of celiac disease. The patients with celiac disease were put on a gluten free diet to evaluate its efficacy on the improvement of their lesions.


RESULTS
Fourteen patients had positive anti-tissue transglutaminase antibody test (two with positive anti-endomysial antibody as well). Duodenal biopsies showed findings compatible with Marsh 3 in one and Marsh 1 in three other patients. All the diagnosed patients with celiac disease responded to the gluten free diet.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings didn't support any association between celiac disease and Behcet's disease in Iranian patients compared to the general population of Iran.
Zamani
Farhad
F
Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease Research Center, Iran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Shahram
Farhad
F
Shakeri
Ramin
R
Zayyeni
Habib
H
Davatchi
Fereydoun
F
Amiri
Afsaneh
A
Malekzadeh
Reza
R
D000328:Adult; D000888:Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic / Q000097:blood; D001528:Behcet Syndrome / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001706:Biopsy; D002446:Celiac Disease / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D004386:Duodenum / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007492:Iran / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011503:Transglutaminases / Q000276:immunology
D000888:Antibodies, Anti-Idiotypic; D011503:Transglutaminases