Celiac disease: Serologic prevalence in patients with irritable bowel syndrome

Background: the prevalence of irritable bowel syndrome (ibs) in the community is 10%–20% and have symptom based diagnostic criteria. many symptoms of celiac disease (cd) with 1% prevalence in some communities can mimic ibs. sensitive and specific serologic tests of cd can detect asymptomatic cases. the purpose of this study was to compare the level of anti-tissue-transglutaminase (ttg) iga in ibs patients and controls group. materials and methods: this case–control study was performed at a university hospital in which 107 patients with ibs who met the rome ii criteria for their diagnosis were compared with 126 healthy age and sex-matched controls. both groups were investigated for cd by analysis of their serum ttg iga antibody with human recombinant antigen. titers were positive containing over 10u/ml and borderline if they were between 4 and 10 u/ml. result: 86 percent of ibs patients were female. the mean antibody level was 0.837 u/ml in ibs group and 0.933 u/ml in control group without any significant difference. discussion and conclusion: results of this study may intensify disagreement on the situation of cd in ibs patients.