Clinical Picture of Celiac disease: Experience from a health care provider in Arabia

Abstract

Background: Most studies describing clinical features and associations of celiac disease come from the studies conducted in the western world. Our aim was to determine the clinical features and associations of Celiac disease from our centre serving a Middle East population in Saudi Arabia. Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in a health care provider serving the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. All patients with biopsy-confirmed celiac disease receiving health care at our centre between April 2002 and December 2018 were identified. Individual case records were reviewed. In addition, the Slicer Dicer function was also used from the Electronic medical health record [EPIC] for analysing the clinical features and associations. Results: We analyzed the clinical features of 149 patients with Celiac disease. 66% of these were females. There was progressively increased yield of confirmed Celiac disease over the study period. This was paralleled by an increase in TTG antibody tests performed year by year. 77 (51.6%) patients had gastrointestinal symptoms. 26% of patients had iron deficiency anemia. 24 patients (16%) had diabetes, of which 46% were type 2. 18 (12%) patients had osteoporosis or osteopenia, and 28 (19%) had various skin diseases. Conclusion:In Saudi Arabia, celiac disease is being increasingly recognized, largely because of increased awareness and increasing TTG antibody testing. Many patients present with non-gastrointestinal symptoms. Knowledge about the varied clinical features and the targeted use of celiac serology should lead to even earlier recognition of the disease.