شيوع بيماري سلياك در بالغين شهرستان ساري

Prevalence of celiac disease in North of Iran :Screening of an adult population in Sari

Background&Objective: Studies about the prevalence of celiac disease (CD) in West-Asian countries are scarce and there is only one study on the prevalence of CD in healthy blood donors in Iran. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of Cl) in general population of the city of Sari in north of Iran. Materials&Methods: This was a descriptive study and the blood samples were obtained from 1438 person from general population (686 males, 752 females: mean age 35.5 range 18-66 year) of the Sari which were selected by stratified randomized sampling method during 2003. Total serum IgA was measured in all and IgA-deficient cases were excluded. From this study all cases were analysed for IgA tissue Transglutaminase antibody (human recombinant tTG). All persons who had a positive serology for tTG-Ab underwent small intestinal biopsy. The biopsy samples were classified according to modified Marsh criteria. Results: All of the samples had normal total IgA. Thirteen cases showed positive IgA-tTG Ab (6 males and 7 females mean age 37.5 yrs). All subjects with positive serology except one of them were found to have small bowel biopsies compatible with gluten sensitive enteropathy. One of 13 had Marsh 0, 8/13 Marsh I. 3/13 Marsh 1I and 1/13 showed Marsh IIIa lesion. Conclusion: The minimum prevalence of gluten-sensitivity among general population in north of Iran is 1/120. This data confirms our study on healthy blood donors, which has published previously and is like of prevalence of celiac disease in western countries. So celiac disease is not a rare disease as it thought before in this area.