Complications of Celiac Disease

Abstract

Celiac disease is a small bowel disorder, due to defect in gluten diet, leading to mucosal inflammation, villous atrophy and crypt hyperplasia. For the diagnosis of celiac disease, one has to be on gluten free diet. Due to commonly available various serologic tests and histopathology, celiac disease, can be categorized as asymptomatic, silent or potential. Between 80 and 90% of all patients with celiac disease remained undiagnosed. Because of this late diagnosis, patients may develop various complications including anemia, bone loss, depression and cancers. Patients may have different types of anemia including iron deficiency, folic acid or B12 deficiency. Any of these may occurred separately or may be manifested together. The same variation is seen in bone loss, starting from osteopenia, osteomalacia to osteoporosis and even dysplasias. Patient may develop lymphoma, gastric or oesophageal carcinomas as well. Celiac disease is also associated with other autoimmune illnesses as it is an autoimmune process by itself. The complications of celiac disease, is either due to direct consequence of celiac, or due to significant damage to the small intestine. With the early detection and diagnosis, the symptomatology and complications of celiac disease can be spared.

Evaluation of Gluten-Free Diet Efficacy for Improving Quality of Life of Patients with Celiac Disease

“…Between 80 and 90% of celiac patients remain undiagnosed. Because of late diagnosis, these patients may develop various complications, including malabsorption, anemia, bone loss, infertility, depression, or even cancer (14)(15)(16)(17)(18). Despite the increasing prevalence of CD and potential complications of this disorder, the only effective treatment of this condition is a lifelong commitment to a gluten-free diet (GFD) (19)(20)(21).…”