Abstract
Background Behcet's disease and Celiac disease, both common in Iran, share many immunopathogenic and clinical features. Based on the possible association between these two diseases, this study is designed to determine the frequency of non-diagnosed celiac disease in patients with Behcet’s disease. Methods The sera of 288 consecutive patients with Behcet’s disease were screened with anti-endomysial antibody and anti-tissue transglutaminase antibody for celiac disease. Those with a positive test underwent upper gastrointestinal endoscopy and duodenal biopsies to confirm the diagnosis of celiac disease. The patients with celiac disease were put on a gluten free diet to evaluate its efficacy on the improvement of their lesions. Results Fourteen patients had positive anti-tissue transglutaminase antibody test (two with positive anti-endomysial antibody as well). Duodenal biopsies showed findings compatible with Marsh 3 in one and Marsh 1 in three other patients. All the diagnosed patients with celiac disease responded to the gluten free diet. Conclusion Our findings didn’t support any association between celiac disease and Behcet’s disease in Iranian patients compared to the general population of Iran.
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Acknowledgments
This work was financially supported by local funds from Digestive Disease Research Center, University of Tehran, and Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease Research Centre, Iran University of Medical Sciences and has had no any external financial support. We kindly thank Dr. Sara Razmjou and Dr. Ali Tabatabaei for their valuable comments.
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Zamani, F., Shahram, F., Shakeri, R. et al. Prevalence of Celiac Disease Among Patients with Behcet’s Disease in Iran. Dig Dis Sci 54, 1736–1739 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-008-0548-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-008-0548-8