Prevalence of coeliac disease among adult patients with autoimmune hypothyroidism in Jordan

The prevalence of coeliac disease among patients with autoimmune hypothyroidism has not been studied before in Jordan and other Arab countries. A cross-sectional record-based review was made of all adult autoimmune hypothyroidism patients who attended a referral centre in Jordan, during an 8-month period. Coeliac disease in these patients was diagnosed by the attending physician based on positive serological tests for anti-endomysial antibodies IgA and IgG followed by duodenal biopsy to confirm the diagnosis of coeliac disease. Of 914 patients recruited, 117 [12.8%] were seropositive for coeliac disease. Of 87 seropositive patients who underwent duodenal biopsy, 39 had positive histological findings of coeliac disease [44.8%]. Extrapolating from these findings the overall rate of coeliac disease among autoimmune hypothyroidism patients was estimated to be 5.7%. In multivariate logistic regression coeliac disease was significantly associated with older age [> 40 years], presence of other autoimmune diseases, vitamin B12 deficiency and anaemia

Pattern of upper gastrointestinal disease in symptomatic Jordanians: a prospective endoscopic study of 5657 patients

During the period 1985-1995 a total number of 5657 Jordanian patients presented with dyspeptic symptoms were studied prospectively. UGI endoscopy was performed in all patients after the exclusion of liver, pancreatic, renal and peritoneal disease. Males were 54.5% with a mean age of 41.5 +/- 15.3. Females were 45.50% with a mean age of 40.05% +/- 15.7. The most common endoscopic diagnosis was erosive duodenitis [20.8%] followed by duodenal ucler disease [17.7%], erosive gastritis [14.3%], erosive esophagitis [12.7%] and gastric ulcer disease [4.2%]. Non-ulcer dyspepsia was diagnosed in 17.9%, hiatus hernia in 3.6% malignancy in 2.6% and achalasia in 1.2% of the cases, of 2364 biopsied patients, a "Histologically Normal" diagnosis was obtained in 7.5%. However, chronic non-specific superficial gastritis was 37.6%, followed by chonic duodenitis 14.7% which constituted the two most common histological diagnoses. Hellicobacter pylori were identified histologically in the gastric mucosa of 88% of duodenal ulcer, 66% of gastric ulcer, 75% of gastric malignancy, 80% of superficial chronic active gastritis with associated endoscopic finding of erosive antral gastritis and in 70% of patients with non-ulcer dyspepsia. This study is the first to document the prevalence of peptic ulcer disease and upper gastrointestinal tract malignancy and the prevalence of Helicobacter pylori histologically in dyspeptic Jordanian patients. These results were discussed and compared to those of other studies