Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2005 May 21;5(1):11.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2431-5-11.

Age related clinical features of childhood coeliac disease in Australia

Monique L Stone  1 , Timothy D Bohane, Kylie E Whitten, Vivienne H Tobias, Andrew S Day
Affiliations

Age related clinical features of childhood coeliac disease in Australia

Monique L Stone et al. BMC Pediatr. .

Abstract

Background: To describe the presenting clinical features of coeliac disease in a single paediatric centre, and to determine if the presenting features vary with age.

Methods: A review was conducted of children who had been referred with clinical suspicion of coeliac disease to the paediatric gastroenterology department of a tertiary paediatric hospital in Sydney, Australia. Coeliac disease was defined using standard histological criteria. Medical records were reviewed retrospectively.

Results: Clinical data were available for 74 cases of proven coeliac disease. Only 9% of patients were less than 2 years of age at diagnosis. Pre-school children (age < 5 years) presented with different symptoms to school children (age > or = 5 years). The most common presenting features in younger children were diarrhoea, irritability and weight loss. However, in older children, abdominal pain was the most common presenting feature.

Conclusion: We found a significant difference in the clinical features of coeliac disease in pre-school compared to school age children.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Age at Presentation of Coeliac disease in the cohort of 74 subjects. This figure illustrates the age distribution of the 74 subjects with coeliac disease in this study. Infants less than 2 years of age represented only 12% of the population. 27% of subjects were aged between 4 and 5 years, 36% were aged between 5 and 10 years, 26% were more than 10 years.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. K GE, Mearin ML, Franken HCM, Houwen RHJ, Hirasing RA, Vandenbrouche JP. Twenty Years of childhood coeliac disease in The Netherlands: a rapidly increasing incidence? Gut. 1997;40:61–66. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Day AS, Cook HB, Whitehead M, Abbott GD. Anti-endomysial and anti-gliadin antibodies in screening for coeliac disease in children at greater risk of developing coeliac disease. N Z Med J JID - 0401067. 2000;113:412–413. - PubMed
    1. Csizmadia CGDS, Mearin ML, von Blomberg BME, Brand R, Verloove-vanhorick SP. An iceberg of childhood coeliac disease in the Netherlands. The Lancet. 2003;353:813–814. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(99)00243-3. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Hovell CJ, Collett JA, Vautier G, Cheng AJP, Sutanto E, Mallon DF, Olynyk JK, Cullen DJE. High prevalence of coeliac disease in a population-based study from Western Australia: a case for screening? Medical Journal of Australia. 2001;175:247–250. - PubMed
    1. Ivarsson A, Persson LA, Nystrom L, Ascher H, Cavell B, Dannaeus A, Lindberg T, Lindquist B, Stenhammar L, Hernell O. Epidemic of coeliac disease in Swedish children. Acta Paediatrica. 2000;89:165–171. doi: 10.1080/080352500750028771. - DOI - PubMed