title: Dyspepsia and celiac disease: Prevalence, diagnostic tools and therapy.
abstract: The prevalence of dyspepsia is up to 40% in population-based study. Functional dyspepsia is an exclusion diagnosis and it is classified as a chronic abdominal pain-related functional disorder, characterized by the presence of persistent or recurrent pain or discomfort centered in the upper abdomen, neither relief by defecation, nor association with the onset of a change in stool frequency or form. Celiac disease (CD) is a common autoimmune enteropathy, with a prevalence around 1% in the general population. Its diagnosis includes a serological screening and an upper gastrointestinal endoscopy with multiple biopsies. Gluten-free diet is the only effective treatment. CD diagnosis is often delayed in asymptomatic patients or in individuals with less clinical gastrointestinal symptoms. Several studies performed coeliac disease screening in patients with symptoms suggestive of dyspepsia, showing a biopsy-proved prevalence that ranged from 0.5% to 2%. The typical endoscopic markers of villous atrophy are not sufficiently sensitive, so some endoscopic techniques, such as "water immersion" and confocal endomicroscopy were proposed to improve the diagnostic sensitivity and target biopsies. A recent meta-analysis estimated that the prevalence of CD was higher in patients with dyspepsia, but not in a statistically significant way. However this assumption should be confirmed further larger studies.
authors.affiliation: Laura Petrarca, Raffaella Nenna, Gerarda Mastrogiorgio, Matteo Florio, Department of Pediatrics, "Sapienza" University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Petrarca
authors.affiliation: Laura Petrarca, Raffaella Nenna, Gerarda Mastrogiorgio, Matteo Florio, Department of Pediatrics, "Sapienza" University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nenna
authors.affiliation: Laura Petrarca, Raffaella Nenna, Gerarda Mastrogiorgio, Matteo Florio, Department of Pediatrics, "Sapienza" University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Gerarda
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mastrogiorgio
authors.affiliation: Laura Petrarca, Raffaella Nenna, Gerarda Mastrogiorgio, Matteo Florio, Department of Pediatrics, "Sapienza" University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Matteo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Florio
authors.affiliation: Laura Petrarca, Raffaella Nenna, Gerarda Mastrogiorgio, Matteo Florio, Department of Pediatrics, "Sapienza" University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brighi
authors.affiliation: Laura Petrarca, Raffaella Nenna, Gerarda Mastrogiorgio, Matteo Florio, Department of Pediatrics, "Sapienza" University of Rome, 00161 Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pontone
keywords: Coeliac disease; Dyspepsia; Screening; Upper endoscopy; Villus atrophy