Serologic, endoscopic and pathologic findings in pediatric celiac disease: A single center experience in a low/middle income country.

Background: Studies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America are needed to provide a comprehensive picture of the global incidence of celiac disease (CD).

Aim: To describe the serology, endoscopic and histological findings in typical and atypical presentations of pediatric CD at a tertiary referral hospital in an African low/middle income country (LMIC).

Methods: This observational study was conducted on 199 patients with CD from 2010 to 2019. The patients were divided into typical and atypical groups according to the presenting symptoms including 120 and 79 patients respectively. Serology, upper gastrointestinal endoscopy with duodenal biopsy were performed for patients who had symptoms suggestive of CD. The severity of the intestinal damage was graded according to the histo-pathologic Marsh-Oberhuber classification.

Results: Chronic diarrhea was the main intestinal presentation in the typical group. Anemia was the most common extraintestinal symptom in both the typical and atypical group. Marsh-Oberhuber type 3b and 3c was significantly higher in the seropositive patients with a value of 0.007. A significant correlation was observed between the histological grade of the biopsied duodenal mucosa and the clinical presentation ( 0.001). Age was significantly higher in the atypical group ( value < 0.001).

Conclusion: Although typical CD was observed in 120 patients in this study, the clinical variability of the condition was frequently observed. Age only was a significant predictor for the appearance of atypical CD. Therefore, CD presentations in LMIC are not different from industrialized countries.