Celiac disease arthropathy and autoimmunity study.

BACKGROUND AND AIM: To evaluate presence of sero-negative spondyloarthritis (SpA) in celiac disease (CD) patients, and whether compliance with a gluten free diet (GFD) improved arthritis manifestations in these patients.

METHODS: We undertook a prospective, questionnaire based, cross-sectional cohort study to evaluate the presence or absence of SpA simultaneously in both CD and non-CD cohorts.

RESULTS: 356/590 (60.3%) patients with CD participated in this study. 99% had diagnosis confirmed by a diagnostic test (79% small bowel biopsy, 19.8% blood test, 3.9% stool test). Approximately 131 (37%) cases of arthritis were reported in CD patients. Of the 6/356 CD patients with seronegative spondyloarthritides, four had sacroiliitis, two ankylosing spondylitis, and one psoriatic arthritis, compared to one ankylosing spondylitis and five psoriatic arthritis in non-CD. Osteoarthritis (89 vs 59, P = 0.93) was the most common diagnosis reported by respondents. More CD patients with diarrhea (94%) and anemia (81%) improved on GFD, compared to arthritis symptoms (30%). Autoimmune thyroiditis (10.6% vs 0.4%), insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) (2.2% vs 1.7%), systemic Lupus erythematosus (SLE) (1.1% vs 0), and psoriasis (12.9% vs 5.5%) occurred more frequently in CD patients. The prevalence of Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, Sjogren's syndrome, primary biliary cirrhosis, and primary sclerosing cholangitis was around 1% each. Univariate Logistic regression analysis showed ≤ high school education (odds ratio [OR] 2.01, P < 0.003), age ≥ 60 years (OR 4.13, P < 0.001), and osteoporosis (OR 2.78, P < 0.001) to be significantly associated with report of arthritis in CD patients.

CONCLUSION: We did not find a high rate of SpA in CD patients. In contrast, increased rates of autoimmune thyroiditis, SLE, IDDM, and psoriasis were seen in CD.