Table 2.
Baseline clinical and laboratory features of patients affected by seronegative coeliac disease, coeliac disease associated to IgA deficiency and conventional seropositive coeliac disease
| SNCD n=84 |
CD+IgAd n=48 |
SPCD n=2084 |
Overall p-value | p-value SNCD vs. SPCD* |
p-value SNCD vs. CD+IgAd* |
p-value SPCD vs. CD+IgAd* |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age at diagnosis (mean±SD) | 50±17 | 46±17 | 42±16 | <0.001 | <0.001 | 0.49 | 0.35 |
| Gender, Females | 60 (71.4%) | 26 (54.2%) | 1470 (70.5%) | 0.055 | - | - | - |
| Weight loss | 35 (41.7%) | 17 (35.4%) | 327 (15.7%) | <0.001 | <0.001 | 1.00 | <0.01 |
| Vomiting | 16 (19.0%) | 6 (12.5%) | 106 (5.1%) | <0.001 | <0.001 | 1.00 | 0.11 |
| Dyspepsia | 28 (33.3%) | 10 (20.8%) | 358 (17.2%) | <0.01 | <0.01 | 0.48 | 1.00 |
| Diarrhoea | 59 (70.2%) | 28 (58.3%) | 797 (38.3%) | <0.001 | <0.001 | 0.56 | 0.02 |
| Abdominal pain | 34 (40.5%) | 11 (22.9%) | 711 (34.1%) | 0.12 | - | - | - |
| Osteoporosis § | 17 (23.3%) | 6 (17.1%) | 125 (7.2%) | <0.001 | <0.001 | 1.00 | 0.12 |
| IDA | 23 (27.4%) | 18 (38.3%) | 685 (33.0%) | 0.41 | - | - | - |
| Low B12 anaemia | 7 (8.3%) | 2 (4.3%) | 112 (5.4%) | 0.44 | - | - | - |
| Folate deficiency anaemia | 5 (6.0%) | 0 | 76 (3.7%) | 0.24 | - | - | - |
| DH | 4 (4.8%) | 1 (2.1%) | 67 (3.2%) | 0.66 | - | - | - |
| Family history CD | 4 (4.8%) | 8 (17.0%) | 326 (15.7%) | 0.01 | 0.014 | 0.082 | 1.00 |
| Autoimmunity | 17 (20.2%) | 13 (27.1%) | 456 (21.9%) | 0.62 | - | - | - |
| Hypothyroidism | 9 (10.7%) | 6 (12.5%) | 249 (12.0%) | 0.93 | - | - | - |
| Hyperthyroidism | 1 (1.2%) | 0 | 34 (1.6%) | 1.00 | - | - | - |
| Type I diabetes | 3 (3.6%) | 4 (8.3%) | 107 (5.1%) | 0.44 | - | - | - |
| Addison’s disease | 0 | 0 | 3 (0.1%) | 1.00 | - | - | - |
| Rheumatoid arthritis | 5 (6.0%) | 0 | 21 (1.0%) | <0.01 | <0.01 | 0.47 | 1.00 |
| Systemic sclerosis | 2 (2.4%) | 0 | 1 (0.0%) | <0.01 | 0.01 | 1.00 | 1.00 |
| SLE/Sjogren syndrome | 3 (3.6%) | 1 (2.1%) | 16 (0.8%) | 0.03 | 0.10 | 1.00 | 0.97 |
| HLA typing § | 0.01 | 0.02 | 1.00 | 0.40 | |||
| DQ2 +ve | 59 (85.5%) | 18 (81.8%) | 532 (86.6%) | ||||
| DQ8 +ve | 7 (10.1%) | 2 (9.1%) | 24 (3.9%) | ||||
| DQ2/DQ8 +ve | 1 (1.4%) | 1 (4.5%) | 52 (8.5%) | ||||
| **DQ2 and DQ8 −ve | 2 (2.9%) | 1 (4.5%) | 6 (1.0%) |
post-hoc comparison p-values adjusted according to Bonferroni;
patients with negative HLA-DQ2/DQ8 typing were HLA-DQ7.5 positive and showed clinical and histological response to a gluten-free diet.
data not available for all patients, patients with missing data were not included in the analysis; percentages calculated based on only patients with available data, CD: coeliac disease; SNCD: seronegative coeliac disease; SPCD: seropositive coeliac disease; CD+IgAd def: coeliac disease associate to IgA deficiency; IDA: iron deficiency anaemia; DH: dermatitis herpetiformis; SLE: systemic lupus erythematosus; HLA: Human Leukocyte Antigen; SD: standard deviation,
Statistical analysis: proportions were compared with Fisher’s exact test, continuous variables were compared among groups with the Kruskal-Wallis test