title: Yield of coeliac screening in abdominal pain-associated functional gastrointestinal system disorders.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Chronic abdominal pain (CAP) in childhood is common and in the majority functional. While CAP is one of the complaints of coeliac disease (CD), whether CAP as a sole complaint is indicative of CD is unclear. Our aim was to evaluate the relationship between CAP and CD.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was conducted on 1047 children (61.1% female, mean age 9.6 ± 4.1 years) with CAP. Patients were evaluated according to the Rome III criteria. Patients with alarm symptoms and conditions known to be associated with CD were excluded. Patients were screened for CD using a rapid tissue transglutaminase (tTG) test; positive cases were tested by tTG ELISA, and duodenal biopsies were obtained if tTG was above the normal limit.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Functional dyspepsia (FD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and functional abdominal pain (FAP) were diagnosed in 384 (36.7%), 274 (26.2%) and 389 (37.2%) patients, respectively. In 13 patients, the tTG rapid test was positive; 10 were also positive for tTG by ELISA and histopathological evaluations diagnosed CD in all 10 patients. The overall prevalence of CD was 0.95% (2.2%, 0.5% and 0.5% in patients with IBS, FD and FAP, respectively). The prevalence of CD in patients with IBS was higher than expected but with borderline statistical significance (P = 0.053).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CD is found as common in children with FD and FAP as in the general population. CD was more commonly diagnosed in IBS patients with borderline statistical significance. We suggest that particular attention be paid to children with IBS.
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Gastroenterology, School of Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Aydan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kansu
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Gastroenterology, School of Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Zarife
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kuloğlu
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Gastroenterology, School of Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Arzu
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Demir
authors.affiliation: Pediatric Gastroenterology, School of Medicine, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey.
authors.forename: Aytaç
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yaman
mesh_terms: D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000175:diagnosis*; D000293:Adolescent; D001706:Biopsy; D002446:Celiac Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D059350:Chronic Pain; D004386:Duodenum / Q000473:pathology; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D005260:Female; D019204:GTP-Binding Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000379:methods*; D015995:Prevalence; D000091345:Protein Glutamine gamma Glutamyltransferase 2; D011503:Transglutaminases / Q000032:analysis; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000091345:Protein Glutamine gamma Glutamyltransferase 2; D011503:Transglutaminases; D019204:GTP-Binding Proteins
keywords: childhood; chronic abdominal pain; coeliac disease; irritable bowel syndrome