title: Celiac disease: Serologic prevalence in patients with irritable bowel syndrome.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) in the community is 10%-20% and have symptom based diagnostic criteria. Many symptoms of celiac disease (CD) with 1% prevalence in some communities can mimic IBS. Sensitive and specific serologic tests of CD can detect asymptomatic cases. The purpose of this study was to compare the level of anti-tissue-transglutaminase (tTG) IgA in IBS patients and controls group.
  
  
  METHODS
  This case-control study was performed at a University hospital in which 107 patients with IBS who met the Rome II criteria for their diagnosis were compared with 126 healthy age and sex-matched controls. Both groups were investigated for CD by analysis of their serum tTG IgA antibody with human recombinant antigen. Titers were positive containing over 10u/ml and borderline if they were between 4 and 10 u/ml.
  
  
  RESULTS
  86 percent of IBS patients were female. The mean antibody level was 0.837 u/ml in IBS group and 0.933 u/ml in control group without any significant difference.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results of this study may intensify disagreement on the situation of CD in IBS patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Liver Disease, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran.
authors.forename: Zobeiri
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Mehdi
authors.forename: Ebrahimi
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sakineh
authors.forename: Farahvash
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mohammad
authors.forename: Rezaei
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mansour
authors.forename: Abdollahi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alireza
keywords: Celiac disease; irritable bowel syndrome; tissue-transglutaminas antibodies