Page 66 - JCTR-9-4

Journal of Clinical and Translational Research 2023; 9(4): 282-289

Journal of Clinical and Translational Research

Journal homepage: http://www.jctres.com/en/home

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Histopathological findings in celiac disease patients enrolled for duodenal

biopsy in Najran, Saudi Arabia: a 5-year retrospective study

Saad Misfer Al-Qahtani *, Mohammed Majeed Alwaily , Ali Abdullah Businnah , Hussain Ali Al Zamanan , Mahdi Turki
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Alfataih , Dhafer Mohammed Al Sagoor , Awad Mohammed Al-Qahtani 3
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1 Department of Pathology, College of Medicine, The University Hospital, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia, College of
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Medicine, The University Hospital, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia, Department of Family Medicine, College of Medicine,
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The University Hospital, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia
ARTICLE INFO Abstract
Article history: Background: Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition characterized by serological and
Received: November 07, 2022 histopathological manifestations associated with gluten ingestion.
Revised: June 29, 2023 Aim: This report investigates histopathological findings in all celiac disease patients of both genders
Accepted: July 21, 2023 enrolled for duodenal biopsy from June 2015 to May 2020 in four centers in Najran, Saudi Arabia.
Published online: August 22, 2023 Methods: This retrospective study assessed data retrieved from archived histopathology records. The data
were analyzed using Prism GraphPad 6. Categorical variables were examined using descriptive statistics,
Keywords: including frequency and percentages. A Chi-square test was used to assess the association between gender
Celiac disease and age, clinical presentation, and histopathological changes. P < 0.05 was considered as significant.
Biopsy Results: The study included 150 celiac disease patients, of whom 104 were female (69.3%), with most
Endoscopy aged between 31 and 40 years (33.3%). Regarding clinical presentation, the majority of patients (62%)
Histopathology presented with gastrointestinal symptoms. Almost half of the duodenal biopsies (71 cases, 47.3%) showed
Duodenal shortened villi caused by partial atrophy, which is consistent with Grade B1 according to Corazza and
Villanaci criteria, and Type 3A and 3B lesions according to the Marsh–Oberhuber classification. The
*Corresponding authors: second most frequent histopathological finding was an increased abundance of intraepithelial lymphocytes
Saad Misfer Al-Qahtani in the absence of villous atrophy, which was found in 56 biopsies (37.3%) and categorized as Grade A.
Mahdi Turki Alfataih, Dhafer Mohammed Al Conclusions: Females are affected by celiac disease more than males in Najran and the majority presented
Sagoor, Awad Mohammed Al-Qahtani, Najran as having typical celiac disease with gastrointestinal symptoms. Most of the diagnosed cases of celiac
University College of Medicine, Najran, Najran disease ranged between Grades A and B1, with less involvement of the severe degree Grades B2 and 3C,
Saudi Arabia. according to Corazza and Villanaci’s criteria and the Marsh–Oberhuber classification. Despite the absence
Email: smaalqahtany@nu.edu.sa of any association between gender, age, or clinical presentation, there were significant associations between
gender and histopathological findings, grading, and classification of celiac disease lesions. Finally, the
© 2023 Author(s). This is an Open-Access presence of asymptomatic patients (12.7%) indicates the importance of celiac disease screening.
article distributed under the terms of the Relevance of Patients: This study might be considered a reference for pathologists assessing the
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial duodenal biopsies for patients screened for celiac disease in Najran.
License, permitting all non-commercial use,
distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is properly cited.

1. Introduction
Celiac disease is an autoimmune condition characterized by serological and
histopathological manifestations associated with the ingestion of gluten, an alcohol-soluble
group of proteins present in different cereals such as wheat, barley, and oats [1]. During the
last few decades, there have been significant developments in understanding the diagnosis,
pathogenesis, and clinical presentation of this condition [2]. Celiac disease associates

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18053/jctres.09.202304.22-00189