Celiac disease-associated antibodies in type 1 diabetes patients in Cuba

Celiac Disease (CD) is present in 1 to 16.4% of patients with diabetes mellitus type 1 disease. The most important serological markers of CD are anti-endomysial, anti-tissue transglutaminase (tTGA) and anti-glyadin antibodies. In this work, the frequency of tTGA in the Cuban population of diabetic patients was determined, by analyzing 208 subjects (116 male and 92 female; 19.04-years-old in average, ranging 2-58 years) suffering from type 1 diabetes mellitus. The tTGA were determined in the sera of patients as whole tTGA by an immunochromatographic test (HeberFast Line anti-transglutaminase), and also as IgA tTGA by ELISA. Fourteen subjects were identified as positive by both assays, two of them showing gastrointestinal symptoms, being submitted to duodenal biopsy. Six of them consented with this analysis, showing morphological changes consistent with celiac disease and accounting for 2.88% prevalence in the diabetic population. This study confirms the prevalence of the celiac disease in diabetic patients in Cuba, and highlights the relevance of screening for this disease among them even in the absence of celiac disease-associated symptoms.