Screening for Celiac Disease Using Anti Tissue Transglutaminase in Patients with Esophageal SCC between 2004 and 2009

Introduction: esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma (scc) is one of themost common malignancies in iran. to reduce the incidence of esophagealscc, it is important to recognize the controllable risk factors and preventthem. celiac disease is widely known as a possible risk factor for esophagealscc. thus, we decided to assess the frequency of celiac disease inesophageal scc patients in north east of iran in order to suggest correlationbetween two diseases.materials and methods: in a cross-sectional study one hundred and fortythreecases of esophageal scc were examined for anti tissuetransglutaminase antibody (anti-ttg) between the years 2004 and 2009 inghaem and omid hospitals of mashhad university of medical sciences, iran.the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was the test of choice in thisstudy since it provides the sensitivity and specificity needed for thediagnosis and screening of celiac disease. the results of this test werecompared with those of the control group which were compatible in termsof sex and age. data were analyzed through spss software and statisticalanalysis such as x2, exact x2 and t-test.results: 19.6% patients (scc) had positive anti-ttg ( > 20) which wassignificantly different to 7.9% in control group (p -value=0.005).comparing age groups of patients for positive anti_ttg using exact xsquare test showed significant difference in patients with < 40 years old (pvalue=0.005).conclusion: there seems to be a correlation between positive anti_ttgand esophageal scc; that is to say, celiac disease might play a role in theearlier manifestations of esophageal scc.