Five to Seven Times Risk of Celiac Disease in Patients in People with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus

Celiac.com 11/09/2021 - A team of investigators recently set out to determine if patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) are at an increased risk of developing celiac disease compared with the general population. 

Their study, “Threshold for Undergoing Celiac Disease Diagnosis in Pediatric Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus Patients” was presented at the American College of Gastroenterology 2021 conference. The investigative team included Laurel Wood, MD, and colleagues variously affiliated with the University of Chicago.

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For the study, they reviewed chart data on patients under 21 years old who were diagnosed with both T1DM and celiac disease, and treated at University of Chicago. Data included patient diagnosis, pathologic results, serologic test results, and patient demographics.

In all, 52% of patients were female, 86% were white, 5% were Hispanic or Latino, 5% were Asian, 3% were black, and 6% were of unknown ethnicity.

The team found a total of sixty-three patients diagnosed with T1DM and celiac disease. Seven children diagnosed with T1DM who initially had negative celiac screening results became positive up to 7.25 years later, which shows the importance of regular screening.

Typical T1DM patients received first celiac disease screening within an average of 2.29 years after their T1DM diagnosis. The diagnoses of celiac disease included sixteen cases by serology alone (16), thirty-nine by duodenal biopsy (39), and eight others.

TTG and EMA showed a strong correlation, while high DGP IgA and DGP IgG were not necessarily the best indicators or duodenal mucosal damage in patients with T1DM.

To more fully understand the usefulness of celiac disease antibodies in predicting severity of disease in T1DM children, the team suggests studies with larger samples of T1DM patients with Marsh scores less than 3 and increased celiac disease serology.

They found that people with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) face a risk of developing celiac disease that is five to seven times higher than the general population.

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