Objectives Patients with type-1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) and celiac disease (CeD) share the same genetic susceptibility alleles. The diabetes-associated autoantibodies (DAA) may be detected in CeD patients. The aim of this study is to describe the prevalence of DAA in children with CeD. Methods This is a cross-sectional study of children with CeD. The CeD patients were divided into two groups; group 1 (n=23) included patients with isolated CeD and group 2 included patients with combined T1DM and CeD. The study was conducted at King Abdulaziz University Hospital (KAUH) in 2012-2014. DAA, including glutamic acid decarboxylase antibodies (GADA) and protein tyrosine phosphatase-2 antibodies (IA-2), were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in both groups. Clinical, demographic, and laboratory data were collected from the patients' medical charts. Results DAA were determined in 23 patients in group-1 and 18 patients in group-2. Group-1 comprised 43.5% males and 56.5% females; the mean age was 15 ± 3.7 years (with a range of 5-18 years). The prevalence of GADA and IA-2 was 69.6 and 4%, respectively. Group-2 comprised 55.6% males and 44.4% females; the mean age was 15.1 ± 2.8 years (with a range of 7-18 years). The prevalence of GADA and IA-2 was 66.7 and 22.2%, respectively. No significant differences were found between both groups in the prevalence of GADA (p=1.0) or IA-2 (p=0.15). Conclusions Saudi children with CeD have higher prevalence of GADA than reported in a number of other Western studies. Long-term follow-up data is required before recommending routine screening for DAA.
Keywords: GADA; IA-2; Saudi; celiac; type-1 diabetes mellitus.