Abstract
Celiac disease is a chronic small bowel disease induced by ingestion of gluten in genetically susceptible individuals affecting 1% among Caucasians in the Western world. The prevalence of celiac disease is still unknown in most developing countries, especially in Africa which suffer from lack of resources to perform screening of the general population. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of celiac disease autoimmunity in women undergoing antenatal care in selected Ethiopian health institutes. A total of 1942 pregnant women were included at median 25 (range 15-45) years of age who were attending antenatal care at 14 health centers of Central and South-East Oromia regional state of Ethiopia. Serum samples were analyzed for both IgA and IgG autoantibodies against tissue transglutaminase (tTG) using radioligand binding assays. Celiac disease autoimmunity defined as testing positive for both of IgA-tTG and IgG-tTG. In all, 4 of 1942 (0.2%) were positive for IgG-tTG of whom one participant (0.05%) was positive for both IgA-tTG and IgG-tTG and defined as having celiac disease autoimmunity. Based on these results, it was concluded that celiac disease autoimmunity is expected to be less common among the female adult Ethiopian population compared with the expected prevalence in Caucasians.
Highlights
Celiac disease is a common autoimmune disease affecting the small bowel caused by a lifelong intolerance to ingested gluten in genetic susceptible individuals carrying the HLA-DQ2 and DQ8 risk haplotypes [1]
This is the first study to estimate the prevalence of celiac disease autoimmunity (CDA) in an adult female Ethiopian population
We screened 1942 pregnant women at a median 25 years of age for CDA and found only 0.05% of the Ethiopian pregnant women to have CDA, which is less prevalent as compared to other population based screenings from Europe and from the United States of America [28,29,30,31]
Summary
Celiac disease is a common autoimmune disease affecting the small bowel caused by a lifelong intolerance to ingested gluten in genetic susceptible individuals carrying the HLA-DQ2 and DQ8 risk haplotypes [1]. Celiac disease is common in Scandinavia [13], but other countries are reporting an emerging increase in incidence [14,15]. This difference in prevalence is diverse and most likely attributed to genetics, diet and exposures to environmental factors, and access to diagnostic facilities or performed screenings in the general population. Celiac disease is more common in populations with a high prevalence of HLA-DQ2 and DQ8 haplotypes and a high consumption of gluten-containing foods [16,17].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call