Journal Article

Cross-sectional study of coeliac autoimmunity in a population of Vietnamese children

Malaventura, Cristina, Le-Thanh, Hai, Volpato, Stefano, Zanella, Sara, Phung-Duc, Son, Ziberna, Fabiana, Mazzocco, Martina, Le-Thi-Minh, Huong, Vatta, Serena, Borgna-Pignatti, Caterina, De Leo, Luigina, Nguyen-Duy, Bo, Tran-Thi-Chi, Mai, Phung-Tuyet, Lan, Not, Tarcisio, Nguyen-Ngoc-Quynh, Le

2016

Overview

ObjectiveThe prevalence of coeliac disease (CD) in Vietnam is unknown. To fill this void, we assessed the prevalence of serological markers of CD autoimmunity in a population of children in Hanoi.SettingThe outpatient blood drawing laboratory of the largest paediatric hospital in North Vietnam was used for the study, which was part of an international project of collaboration between Italy and Vietnam.ParticipantsChildren having blood drawn for any reason were included. Exclusion criteria were age younger than 2 years, acquired or congenital immune deficiency and inadequate sample. A total of 1961 children (96%) were enrolled (838 females, 1123 males, median age 5.3 years).OutcomesPrimary outcome was the prevalence of positive autoimmunity to both IgA antitransglutaminase antibodies (anti-tTG) assessed with an ELISA test and antiendomysial antibodies (EMA). Secondary outcome was the prevalence of CD predisposing human leucocyte antigens (HLA) (HLA DQ2/8) in the positive children and in a random group of samples negative for IgA anti-tTG.ResultsThe IgA anti-tTG test was positive in 21/1961 (1%; 95% CI 0.61% to 1.53%); however, EMA antibodies were negative in all. HLA DQ2/8 was present in 7/21 (33%; 95% CI 14.5% to 56.9%) of the anti-tTG-positive children and in 72/275 (26%; 95% CI 21% to 32%) of those who were negative.ConclusionsCoeliac autoimmunity is rare in Vietnam, although prevalence of HLA DQ2/8 is similar to that of other countries. We hypothesise that the scarce exposure to gluten could be responsible for these findings.

• Publisher: BMJ Publishing Group LTD,BMJ Publishing Group
• Subject: Abdomen / Age / Anemia / Antibodies / Autoantibodies - blood / Autoimmunity - genetics / Autoimmunity - immunology / Biomarkers - blood / Celiac disease / Celiac Disease - blood / Celiac Disease - epidemiology / Celiac Disease - genetics / Chemotherapy / Child / Child, Preschool / Cross-Sectional Studies / Diabetes / Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / Failure to thrive / Female / Gastroenterology / Gastroenterology and Hepatology / Genotype / Gluten / Haplotypes / HLA-DQ Antigens - blood / Humans / Immunoglobulin A - blood / Italy / Laboratories / Male / Patients / Pediatrics / Prevalence / Questionnaires / Sample size / Transglutaminases - blood / Vietnam - epidemiology