Symptoms and Mucosal Changes Stable During Rapid Increase of Pediatric Celiac Disease in Norway

Objectives: We aimed to study whether the incidence of pediatric celiac disease (CD) in South-Eastern Norway changed from 2000 to 2010. We also examined whether there was a change in symptoms and histopathological morphology in the duodenal biopsies during the same period. Methods: In 3 hospitals in South-Eastern Norway, records from pediatric patients (0–14.9 years) diagnosed with CD during two 3-year periods (2000–2002 and 2008–2010) were reviewed. Only cases with a duodenal biopsy diagnosis of CD classified as Marsh grade 2 and 3a−c were included. Frequencies of symptoms, anthropometric data, and laboratory results were compared, in addition to re-examinations of histological sections from one of the hospitals. Results: A total of 400 cases were diagnosed with a female to male ratio of 1.5:1. The incidence rate for 2000 to 2002 was 15.9 cases per 100,000 person-years (95% confidence interval 12.8–19.4), compared with 45.5 cases per 100,000 person-years during 2008 to 2010 (95% confidence interval 40.5–50.9), P 
Source: Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition - Category: Gastroenterology Tags: Original Article: Gastroenterology: Celiac Disease Source Type: research