[Prevalence of celiac disease in children with chronic diarrhea in China].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the prevalence of celiac disease in children with chronic diarrhea in China.


METHODS
Inpatients of the pediatric hospitals in Shanghai, Jinan, Wuhan and Chengdu who were diagnosed as chronic diarrhea were recruited from Jan. 2005 to Dec. 2008. Their clinical history, physical examination and laboratory data were collected. The SPSS version 11.5 statistical package for Microsoft Windows was used for statistical analysis.


RESULTS
Data of 199 patients and finally enrolled 118 hospitalized chronic diarrhea inpatients during the observation period were collected and 14 (12%) of the chronic diarrhea patients were suspected as having celiac disease and in one the diagnosis of celiac disease was confirmed. Gluten-free diet (GFD) treatment was effective. M/F: 12/2, the age ranged from 6 months to 12 years; 43% (6/14) had malnutrition, 29% (4/14) had anemia, villous atrophy was found in 4 patients by endoscopy. Duodenal biopsies revealed stage I in 1, stage II in 2, stage IIIa in 7, stage IIIb in 3 and stage IIIc in 1 patient according to the modified Marsh classification.


CONCLUSIONS
This study was the first time to report the research of celiac disease in children with chronic diarrhea in China. The percentage of suspicious celiac disease patients was 12% (14/118) in children and one was confirmed. CD exists in China. Chinese pediatricians should pay attention to the disease.
Wang
Xin-qiong
XQ
Department of Pediatrics, Shanghai Ruijin Hospital Affiliated to School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200025, China.
Liu
Wei
W
Xu
Jun-jie
JJ
Mei
Hong
H
Peng
Han-ming
HM
Gao
Yuan
Y
Yuan
Lan
L
Xu
Chun-di
CD
D000293:Adolescent; D002446:Celiac Disease / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D002648:Child; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D004386:Duodenum / Q000473:pathology; D016145:Endoscopy, Digestive System; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007413:Intestinal Mucosa / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence