Pediatrics. 2004 Jun;113(6):1672-6.
Range of neurologic disorders in patients with celiac disease.
Zelnik N, Pacht A, Obeid R, Lerner A.
Department of Pediatrics, Carmel Medical Center, The Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. nzelnik@netvision.net.il
OBJECTIVE: During the past 2 decades, celiac disease (CD) has been recognized as a multisystem autoimmune disorder. A growing body of distinct neurologic conditions such as cerebellar ataxia, epilepsy, myoclonic ataxia, chronic neuropathies, and dementia have been reported, mainly in middle-aged adults. There still are insufficient data on the association of CD with various neurologic disorders in children, adolescents, and young adults, including more common and "soft" neurologic conditions, such as headache, learning disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and tic disorders. The aim of the present study is to look for a broader spectrum of neurologic disorders in CD patients, most of them children or young adults. METHODS: Patients with CD were asked to fill in a questionnaire regarding the presence of neurologic disorders or symptoms. Their medical charts were reviewed, and those who were reported as having neurologic manifestations underwent neurologic examination and brain imaging or electroencephalogram if required. Their neurologic data were compared with that of a control group matched for age and gender. RESULTS: Patients with CD were more prone to develop neurologic disorders (51.4%) in comparison with control subjects (19.9%). These disorders include hypotonia, developmental delay, learning disorders and ADHD, headache, and cerebellar ataxia. Epileptic disorders were only marginally more common in CD. In contrast, no difference was found in the prevalence of tic disorders in both groups. Therapeutic benefit, with gluten-free diet, was demonstrated only in patients with transient infantile hypotonia and migraine headache. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the variability of neurologic disorders that occur in CD is broader than previously reported and includes "softer" and more common neurologic disorders, such as chronic headache, developmental delay, hypotonia, and learning disorders or ADHD. Future longitudinal prospective studies might better define the full range of these neurologic disorders and their clinical response to a gluten-free diet.
PMID: 15173490 [PubMed - in process]
Pediatr Neurol. 2000 May;22(5):393-6. s
Prevalence of celiac antibodies in children with neurologic disorders.
Lahat E, Broide E, Leshem M, Evans S, Scapa E.
Unit of Pediatric Neurology, Assaf Harofeh Medical Center , Tel Aviv University Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Zerifin , Israel .
Neurologic complications are a recognized but unusual manifestation of celiac disease (CD) in adults and children. The use of antigliadin and antiendomysial antibodies in screening has revealed the frequency of CD among symptom-free individuals to be high. Recently, a high frequency (57%) of antigliadin antibodies was demonstrated in adult patients with neurologic dysfunctions of unknown cause. We investigated the yield of screening for CD in children with common neurologic disorders. One hundred sixty-seven children, 1-16 years of age, were included in the study: 41 with migraine headaches, 39 with attention-deficit disorder with or without hyperactivity, 36 with epileptic disorders, and 51 with hypotonia and motor abnormalities. Positive IgG antigliadin antibodies were evident in 22 children (13%) in the study group compared with three children (9%) in the control group. However, in all children, negative IgA and endomysial antibodies were observed; thus duodenal biopsies were not performed. Contrary to studies performed in adults, these results did not demonstrate any relationship between common neurologic disorders without a specific diagnosis during childhood and CD. Thus screening for CD does not need to be routinely included in the diagnostic evaluation of children with these disorders.
PMID: 10913732 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Neurology. 2003 May 27;60(10):1581-5.
Comment in:
Neurology. 2003 May 27;60(10):1566-8.
Celiac neuropathy.
Chin RL, Sander HW, Brannagan TH, Green PH, Hays AP, Alaedini A, Latov N.
Peripheral Neuropathy Center, Department of Neurology and Neuroscience, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10022, USA. RUC9002@med.cornell.edu
BACKGROUND: Celiac disease (CD) is a chronic inflammatory enteropathy resulting from sensitivity to ingested gluten. Neurologic complications are estimated to occur in 10% of affected patients, with ataxia and peripheral neuropathy being the most common problems. The incidence and clinical presentation of patients with CD-associated peripheral neuropathy have not previously been investigated. OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence of CD in patients with neuropathy and to characterize the clinical presentation. METHODS: The records of 20 patients with neuropathy and biopsy-confirmed CD were reviewed. RESULTS: Six of the 20 patients had neuropathic symptoms alone without gastrointestinal involvement, and neuropathic symptoms preceded other CD symptoms in another 3 patients. All patients had burning, tingling, and numbness in their hands and feet, with distal sensory loss, and nine had diffuse paresthesias involving the face, trunk, or lumbosacral region. Only two had weakness. Results of electrophysiologic studies were normal or mildly abnormal in 18 (90%) of the patients. Sural nerve biopsies, obtained from three patients, revealed mild to severe axonopathy. Using the agglutination assay, 13 (65%) of the patients were positive for ganglioside antibodies. Excluding patients who were referred with the diagnosis of celiac neuropathy, CD was seen in approximately 2.5% of all neuropathy patients and in 8% of patients with neuropathy and normal electrophysiologic studies seen at our center. CONCLUSION: CD is commonly associated with sensory neuropathy and should be considered even in the absence of gastrointestinal symptoms.
J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr. 2003 Jul;37(1):63-6.
Autoimmune thyroid disease and celiac disease in children.
Ansaldi N, Palmas T, Corrias A, Barbato M, D'Altiglia MR, Campanozzi A, Baldassarre M, Rea F, Pluvio R, Bonamico M, Lazzari R, Corrao G.
Azienda Ospedaliera O.I.R.M.-S.ANNA, III Divisione Universitaria di Pediatria, Servizio di Gastroenterologia, Universita di Torino , Italy . nicolettaansaldi@tiscalinet.it
BACKGROUND: Celiac disease (CD) may be associated with other immunologic disorders in adults and children. Previous studies linking CD and autoimmune thyroid disease in children have included very few patients with limited biochemical and immunologic screening tests. The aim of this multicenter study was to establish the prevalence of autoimmune thyroid involvement in a large series of pediatric patients with CD. METHODS: Five hundred seventy-three consecutive pediatric patients were enrolled from clinics in Torino , Bologna , Foggia , Rome (two clinics), Naples , and Bari . Three hundred forty-three patients with CD were studied, 230 girls and 113 boys (median age, 8.5 years). Two hundred fifty-six of the patients with CD (median age, 9 years) had been following a gluten-free diet for 3 months to 16 years; 87 patients were untreated (median age, 6.2 years). The diagnosis of CD was made using the European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN) criteria. A control group of 230 subjects (median age, 8.3 years) was enrolled. Serum free triiodothyronine, free thyroxine, and thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), antithyroperoxidase, antithyroglobulin, anti-TSH receptor antibodies, and thyroid echographic pattern were considered. RESULTS: Autoimmune thyroid disease was found in 90 of 343 (26.2%) patients with CD (62 on a gluten-free diet) and in 20 (10%) of the control subjects (P = 0.001). Fifty-four (15.7%) patients with CD and autoimmune markers had normal thyroid function (euthyroidism) as did 12 (6.0%) of the control subjects; hypothyroidism was observed in 28 (8.1%) patients with CD and in 7 (3.5%) of the control subjects. Hyperthyroidism was diagnosed in four patients with CD and in none of the control subjects with autoimmune markers. An abnormal echographic pattern was seen in 37 patients with CD (16.8%) and only in 1 (1.6%) of the control subjects (P = 0.002). CONCLUSIONS: The high frequency of autoimmune thyroid disease found among patients with CD, even those on a gluten-free diet, may justify a thyroid status assessment at diagnosis and at follow-up evaluation of children with CD.