Clinical Spectrum in Celiac Patients Attending a Tertiary Care Centre in Northern India

Abstract

Background: Celiac disease generally is characterized by gluten dependent clinical manifestations. Clinically there may be symptoms of frank mal-absorption or predominant extra intestinal manifestations.

Aim: to study the clinical spectrum of children with celiac disease.

Methods: 360 children between the age group of 1-18 years diagnosed with celiac disease were enrolled into the study and details about the symptoms were recorded.

Results: 27.8% patients had purely gastrointestinal symptoms and 13.9% of the patients had non gastrointestinal presenting features alone. But the majority of the patients i.e. 58.3% of patients had both gastrointestinal and other clinical features.

Conclusion: With such varied clinical spectrum, the diagnosis is often missed in search of a more defined and common diagnoses. Hence is the need to have a high index of suspicion for the diagnosis of celiac disease.