High prevalence of celiac disease in Italian general population

The worldwide increase of celiac disease prompted us to assess its prevalen ce in the Italian general population. The 3483 inhabitants of Campogalliano were tested for immunoglobulin A anti-endomysial antibodies. Twenty subjec ts showed antibody positivity and duodenal biopsy detected typical mucosal lesions of celiac disease in 17 of them; the remaining three cases had a no rmal villous architecture, but the finding of increased gamma/delta intraep ithelial lymphocytes in all and the heterodimer DQA1*0501, DQB1*0201 in two of them was consistent with potential celiac disease. Only one patient had an overt malabsorption syndrome, characterized by diarrhea, weight loss, a nd severe weakness. In eight subjects atypical symptoms of celiac disease, such as dyspepsia and depression, were present, whereas the remaining subje cts were silent. Celiac disease was more frequent in younger age groups. Ou r cross-sectional design study demonstrates that celiac disease prevalence in the Italian general population is 4.9 per 1000 (95% CI 2.8-7.8), increas ing up to 5.7 per 1000 (95% CI 3.5-8.8) with the inclusion of potential cas es.