title: Patients with celiac disease may have normal weight or may even be overweight.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It is believed that patients with celiac disease (CeD) are likely to be underweight. Data from west suggest that 8% to 40% of them can be overweight or obese. We reviewed data on body mass index (BMI) of our patients with CeD and derived the correlations between BMI and other disease characteristics.
  
  
  METHODS
  We retrospectively studied case records of 210 adolescent and adult patients with CeD at the Celiac Disease Clinic. We classified BMI as underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese based on the Consensus Statement for Diagnosis of Obesity, Abdominal Obesity and the Metabolic Syndrome for Asian Indians for those with age >18 years and revised Indian Association of Pediatrics BMI-for-age charts for those between 12 and 18 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of 210 patients, 76 (36.2%) were underweight, 115 (54.8%) were normal weight, 13 (6.2%) were overweight, and 6 (2.9%) were obese. There was no difference in the proportion of underweight between male and female patients with CeD. The mean age of underweight patients was similar to those having normal or overweight. There was no difference in the mean duration of symptoms; frequencies of diarrhea, anorexia, and weakness; anemia; titer of anti-tissue transglutaminase antibody; and severity of villous atrophy in those with underweight or normal weight or overweight.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In our practice, only one third of patients with CeD had low BMI. A diagnosis of CeD should not be excluded if patient has normal or high BMI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Human Nutrition, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, 110 029, India.
authors.forename: Isha
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Human Nutrition, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, 110 029, India.
authors.forename: Abhishek
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agnihotri
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Human Nutrition, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, 110 029, India.
authors.forename: Aishwairya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Human Nutrition, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, 110 029, India.
authors.forename: Anil K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, 110 029, India.
authors.forename: Prasenjit
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Das
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, 110 029, India.
authors.forename: Bhaskar
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Thakur
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, 110 029, India.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Sreenivas
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, 110 029, India.
authors.forename: Siddhartha Datta
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Human Nutrition, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, 110 029, India.
authors.forename: Vineet
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Ahuja
authors.affiliation: Department of Gastroenterology and Human Nutrition, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi, 110 029, India. govindmakharia@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Govind K
authors.initials: GK
authors.lastname: Makharia
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002446:Celiac Disease / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D050177:Overweight / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013851:Thinness / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Body mass index; Clinical phenotype; Gluten-related disorder; Malabsorption; Small intestine